Spell? Curse? Hex? Potion?
by SinfulSanctuary
Summary: Shira is starting her last year at Hogwarts. Her parents push her into finding a boyfriend, or better yet, husband, for safety in the war. She has someone in mind, but has sworn to never act on her feelings for him. What makes her break that promise?
1. Speeches, Feelings And Stories

The Linds were sitting down eating a late dinner in a very classy room. Dark green walls decorated with a few paintings of members of the Lind family. The table and chairs were in dark shiny holly and a few plants were set by the walls next to cabinets with small figurines and collectibles belonging to the Lind family members. All though the room was darkly decorated, it was fully illuminated by the late summer sun shining its last rays through the tall windows, and by chandeliers floating in the air above the table. It was in all a typical dining room for the typical pure-blood family in England.

Delano Lind sat at the short end of the table, with his wife Ellyn next to him on the long side, his daughter Shira opposite of her. They were eating quietly. Usually they talked about the events of the day, but the air was tense between them tonight. The day before, Delano had had a talk with his daughter in his office.

_"You are aware that you have only three years left before your mother and I am going to find you a husband?" Delano had said. He had been sitting in his huge leather chair behind his desk, littered with pieces of parchment, a sleek quill and two ink-bottles._

_Shira sighed. "Yes, father, I am. I have not forgotten it." She knew what was coming._

_"Your mother and I am worried you won't be able to find a husband on your own. You are starting your last year at Hogwarts in two days, and we haven't heard of anyone you would consider being the right man."_

_"I had Theodore Nott, didn't I?" Shira interrupted._

_"I know you had, and we approved of that. But you ended it, he would have been good."_

_"I _wanted _to end it!" Shira snapped. "_He _wanted to end it. We grew out of our feelings for each other. Stuff like that happens! It's not like everyone marries the first crush they have!" She sighed and added barely audible: "If so, it wouldn't have been him."_

_"What's that?" Delano asked demandingly._

_"Nothing!"_

_"Moving on, your mother and I have been talking. We thought perhaps we should have a small gathering tomorrow, with some young men and families we see fit for you. If you are going to have a long engagement, which is appropriate for a young woman with your blood and status, you really should find someone now." Delano looked carefully at his daughter, he knew the temper she could have, it came from her mother. Right now he saw she was struggling to keep it under control._

_"Is that really necessary? As you just said, this is my last year at Hogwarts. Can't I at least have that year to find him myself?"_

_"We just thought we would get some speed into the situation."_

_"You can't rush love!"_

_"No one said anything about love, Shira. I know a lot of people who are put together by sense and their parents, and they are very happy."_

_"But you and mother got married out of love. And you got together when she was 19."_

_"Yes, but we were lucky. We both come from very good pure-blood families, so we were allowed to get married to each other."_

_"Like I would even consider anyone not true pure-blood. But that's not the point! You weren't forced into an early marriage, you both got to marry someone you loved. So now you want me to risk getting into a lifelong relationship with someone that may hate me with his soul and then be unhappy for the rest of my life?"_

_"Of course not, honey. We just want to help you a little, you have had plenty of time by now-"_

_Shira stood up from the hard wooden chair Delano had conjured for her earlier, her face red with boiling anger. Her father always trigged her anger faster than anyone else, and this was a topic she didn't want him interfering with. "I am only 17! And you _promised _I'd get the choice for myself until I turn 20._ For myself!_"_

_"And you will, we are_ _just_ _going to _introduce_ you to a few handsome young men."_

_"You have no faith in me, father! Just have the bloody party, I won't be there. Have fun!" She stormed out of the office and ran up to her room, on the fourth and highest floor. She furiously started packing her trunk, knowing that she would probably be punished for running out like that._

_Through the open balcony door, Shira's cat came tripping and purred against her legs, as if to tell her to calm down. Shira sighed and picked him up. "Hi, Demon." She sat down on her bed and stroked Demon's black fur. "Just had a rant with my father. He and mother want to find me a husband." Demon meowed sadly._

The "gathering" didn't happen. Shira couldn't care less. Her parents could have as many gatherings they wanted, and even if it was to find her a husband, they could attend them without their daughter. The punishment never came either. That surprised her, her parents loved her very much, but they had always punished her with curses whenever she had acted rudely against them.

At the dinner table, Shira put down her fork and stood up, a house-elf appeared at once and took her plate. Shira wrinkled her nose at the creature. "I'm going to check that I have everything packed. Good night, mother, father." She left without waiting for an answer.

"Be ready at 10, sweetheart, we're leaving then!" Shira's mother called after her.

"Yes, mother," Shira mumbled to herself while Apparating from the hall to her room.

---

Ah, back at Hogwarts, for the seventh time. And for the last time. Shira closed the carriage door behind her and admired the proud old castle, letting the gentle breeze ruffle her dark brown hair. Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry stood there bathed in the early moonlight. Memories of six years of schooling and hard work flashed before her eyes. As if it was far away she heard more carriages arrive, students coming out, laughing and talking about the summer on their way through the great Hogwarts doors.

"Are you coming, Shira?" someone called out for her.

Shira returned to reality, nodded and walked smiling towards her friends, Pansy Parkinson and Marieileen Storme.

"What are you smiling for?" Marieileen asked as they walked up the stairs. She was Shira's best friend, since they met for the first time in Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley the summer before their first year.

"Just being nostalgic, I guess," she sighed. "Girls, this is our last year! In nine months we are all on our own. Never to come back to this wonderful place full of secrets and surprises. No more secret meetings in the dark hallways, no more playing around, no more picking on people..." She coughed mumbling 'Gryffindor' before she continued. "No more late nights in our beloved dungeons, no mo-"

"Okay, okay! We get the point," Pansy said, raising her voice to put Shira to silence. "We will all miss the place."

"All our friends, all our enemies, oh, how I will miss them. And the homework, and the teachers and-"

"Stop, please stop! We _get_ the point!" Marieileen and Pansy cried.

"Fine, party poopers..." Shira pouted.

They walked arm in arm through the doors to the Great Hall being quite a sight as they strode to the Slytherin table. Three proud girls, not bad to look at, heads held high, shoulders back. All dressed in black and green robes with the Slytherin sign on the left-hand side of the chest. The younger Slytherins watched them in some kind of repressed awe as they walked past them finding their regular seat. The three girls nodded a greeting, and said hi to a set of chosen people.

"Hi, Draco," Marieileen greeted Draco Malfoy. "Greg and Vincent," she greeted Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. They nodded back, never were the ones to speak so much.

"Hey, Draco," Pansy smiled to him. Shira just nodded and continued down the table without her friends.

"Well, hello there, Storme, Parkinson," Draco said back, winking at each of them. "What, Lind, I don't get a decent hello from you this year?"

Crap, crap, crap, Shira thought as she turned around and looked at him, his cold eyes piercing her. "Hi, Malfoy." Her voice was monotone.

He smirked. "That's better. Hello to you too, Lind. You know you can call me Draco, I thought we had become good friends over the years. Or have I missed out on something this summer?"

Shira avoided looking at his smirk. "You're still trying to be funny aren't you? If we are so good friends, why do you so rarely call _us_ by our first name then?" And she walked away again and sat down just a few seats further down. Marieileen and Pansy sat down and talked with Draco.

"Shira, why are you sitting there? Come here!" Marieileen called for Shira after a few minutes.

"Nah, I'm just fine here, _thanks_. Why don't you come here?" Shira called annoyingly back. "I thought this is where we normally sit."

Marieileen didn't answer. But then professor Sinistra came in followed by the new first years, and Marieileen and Pansy came sitting on each side of Shira anyway. "Why didn't you want to sit with Draco?" Pansy whispered, headmistress Minerva McGonagall had started the speech of welcoming the first years and telling them about the Sorting Hat.

"I just thought we were going to sit here, thought this is where we always sit at the welcoming dinner? Scare the first years a bit." Shira whispered back, turning away from Pansy, casting a quick glance at Draco at the same time. Shira smirked to herself.

Marieileen nudged Shira lightly, claiming her attention. "I don't know what you suddenly have against Draco, but he has never done anything to deserve being treated like that by you. I actually think he would have liked it if you sat there with us."

Shira sighed. "I know, I know, he hasn't done anything to deserve it. I have nothing against him, it's just... the last couple of days have been a bit tiring, okay?" Shira had told her friends about the talk she had had with her father.

Marieileen rolled her eyes and focused on the girl that had just been sorted into Slytherin; she walked down smirking and sat next to Pansy at the end. Shira looked in Draco's direction again, seeing he didn't look her way she took in his face letting her thoughts wander. I wouldn't mind sitting there, just not tonight. It's different this year, I need to settle a little first.

Professor McGonagall started on the welcoming-speech that Albus Dumbledore had done all the years before her. "It is sad to stand here and make this speech, knowing that our beloved headmaster is no longer among us."

Marieileen let out a snort at the word "beloved" and Shira and Pansy rolled their eyes.

"The Ministry was hesitant by letting the school stay open after the attack on the school last term. But myself and the staff has worked hard to convince them that the students are better off learning magic from qualified professors in a controlled environment, rather than staying home without the powerful wards that Hogwarts has. During this summer the Ministry of Magic and the board of school governors made me the headmistress, and I will do my best to continue making this school the best and safest place for young wizards and witches to learn magic. Professor Dumbledore left a letter in his will, which he requested to be read out loud to the students. It was written shortly after the beginning of last school year." McGonagall grabbed a roll of parchment from the table behind her and rolled it out on the table in front of her.

_"By the time you all hear this, I will be gone."_ McGonagall let out a weak sniff before she continued. _"There were some unfortunate events that led to my death. How can I know that when writing this letter, you may ask. I will not tell you how I know, but I will tell you that I do know what will happen. When it will happen, I don't know. And that is not important._

_What I want to say with this letter is hopefully going to get rid of some unnecessary thoughts. Whatever the story is, about how I died, I don't want you to hold any grudges. The person behind it is Vo- V-"_ McGonagall stuttered. _"The person behind it is _You-know-who_. I beg of you all, whatever you heard, blame it all on _You-know-who_._ _No one else is to blame for it."_

Shira glanced at Draco, his face was expressionless.

_"I am very old, I can feel the lord of time catching up with me very fast. Because of that and other reasons, I believe it is the right time for me to leave this world. I will let these events unfold and let __whatever may happen, happen. I have made arrangements so that it will turn out in a satisfiable way._

_So I beg once more, that you do not hold any grudge. And if Professor Severus Snape decides to return to the school as a teacher, please, do not hold anything against him either. Don't question why I ask you to, just trust me in what I say._

_Last, all new students: Welcome! And to old students: Welcome back! I want to wish you all good luck this year, and all the years to come."_

Some of the teachers discretely dried a few tears. McGonagall put away the parchment and cleared her throat. "Let the feast begin!"

"Well, that was interesting," Pansy said while filling her plate with some of the delicious food that appeared on the table.

"Sure was," Shira agreed.

"'Do not hold anything against him either'," Marieileen mimicked McGonagall's voice. "And why is that? I think Dumbledore made Snape do it."

"Something's definitely not right about that night," Pansy said. "But let's not talk about it here. Too many big ears." She glared at the Gryffindor table, where Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley and Ginny Weasley was sitting on edge trying to hear the Slytherins' reactions to Dumbledore's letter, pretty difficult seeing as they were sitting at the opposite sides of the room.

"Watch it, Tiny Weasley, you might fall off you seat and get a burning scar, just like your disgusting boyfriend," Shira yelled at Ginny Weasley. "Oh my god, the floor is attacking me!" she said in a high pitched voice.

Marieileen and Pansy burst out in laughter, as did half of the Slytherin table. The teacher's table gave her warning glares.

---

It had been about two and a half months without seeing him. It had been hard for Shira, the first few weeks of the summer had been close to torture. With everything that happened at the end of last school year, not knowing what had happened with him, where he was. Of course everyone was worried, but Shira probably worried a little more. Then they got the message, just a couple of weeks before the start of school. Her father had been away on Death Eater-business, and came back with the good news. He was in perfectly good health, the Dark Lord was pleased in spite of what really happened, and he would be coming back to school if he wanted.

Today she finally saw him again. The feelings for him had of course grown over the years, but had never gotten stronger than a hard crush. But she got hit real hard when she saw him this morning. She had been late and had run for her life onto the Hogwarts Express, no time to say goodbye to her parents, not that she wanted to, she was still angry with them. Looking for the compartment with her friends in it, she suddenly saw him alone in one. She stopped dead in her tracks. He stood with his back to her. He had just taken out his wand and now he admired it for a few seconds. She knew he was smirking. He levitated his luggage and placed it on the racks above the seats. Suddenly Crabbe and Goyle had bumped into her. She sent them a murderous glare and continued through the train.

Shira's heart had stung so hard she got scared for her life. Then it had started racing like it had only two seconds to beat for a whole lifetime. In the compartment with her friends, at least four hours since she saw him, her heart still beat like crazy when she thought of that moment. She had to force herself to think of something else, because she was scared for her health. The years long crush that had now suddenly jumped from second to fifth gear. But Shira did an excellent job in hiding it. She wasn't a Slytherin for nothing!

Now she was lying in her bed, the drapes closed around her bed. For two hours she had tossed and turned, not finding the peace to fall asleep, one name racing through her mind, one face flashing before her eyes. At home she could at least do the one thing that calmed her for a few hours, but she couldn't do it now. The others could hear her. Maybe she could just sneak into the bathroom, do her thing and go back to bed finding her sweet sleep? She decided to try the common room instead. Sitting there looking into the fire, imagining she was sitting by a fire in the desert used to help her sleep before.

Shira carefully peaked through the dark green drapes around her comfy bed; everyone seemed to be asleep. She grabbed a long t-shirt and pulled it over her naked upper-body. Most of the girls slept in nightgowns, Shira couldn't stand it. Wearing a nightgown made her feel like she was tied up, it would just cling to her body and make it impossible to move in the morning, Shira wasn't a calm sleeper. And why be so shy around girls you had slept in the same room with for six years, practically grown up together? She made it to the door and slipped out, doing her silent walk; up on her toes, shoulders raised, eyes darting. She was halfway down the stairs when she noticed a girl sitting on the couch with her head resting on her folded up knees.

"Isn't that one of the first years?" Shira whispered to herself. She slowly made her way down and heard the girl take deep breaths as if repressing sobs.

"Are you all right?" Shira asked quietly leaning forward on the back of the sofa. The girl jumped and turned around. She looked like someone had just threatened her life.

"Y-yes, I am all right," she answered, her voice cracking.

"You don't have to be afraid of me. I may be a seventh year, and I may give the impression of being a tough girl, but I'm not like that always," Shira smiled softly. The girl looked surprised, and she smiled trembling back. "Now, I ask again, are you all right?"

The girl gently shook her head. Shira sat down next to her, waiting with patience she didn't have for the girl to answer. "I-I'm a little scared of-of being s-sorted into... S-s-slytherin."

"Why? Don't you feel like you should be here?" Shira tried to sound trustworthy. She wasn't so good with comforting the younger ones.

"I-I don't know. Both my parents were Hufflepuffs. They always said that Slytherins are bad people, that they do dark magic, and... and become Death Eaters." The girl said that last part in a low whisper, like a breath, with her almost black eyes full of fear. "I d-don't want to be a Death Eater."

"Odd," Shira mused. "You are a pure-blood, right? Otherwise something is really wrong."

"Oh yeah, I'm definitely pure-blood." The answer came quick and without doubt. Shira hid a smirk, there you have it, Slytherin Power.

"Little girl," Shira said in her best comforting voice. "We may appear cold, hard and cruel, but that's just how we want to be looked at. Image is important, showing our weaknesses can be dangerous. Slytherins are people that do almost anything to get what they want. We want power and we are not afraid to claim it. That's not a bad thing. Yes, many dark witches and wizards have been in Slytherin, but some actually become well respected citizens. And believe me when I say that I know you will be perfect in this house."

The little girl pulled a few strands of blond curls behind her ears. "I hope you're right. I don't want to disappoint my parents. They have been so good to me."

Shira sensed that this would be a long conversation, she had no chance of getting to sit there alone and dream her way to another boring and tiring place. This conversation had distracted her though, she felt like she could go to sleep now. "I'm _sure_ they won't be disappointed. But I have to try to get some sleep. I promise everything will be all right. Just don't show any fear or weak signs, not everyone is as nice as I am, and I have never called myself nice. Then I _promise_ it will be all right. Now try and get some sleep. Good night."

The girl smiled, and nodded that she understood. "Good night, thank you."

Shira started to walk away, but turned at the bottom of the stairs. "Shira. Shira Lind. That's me."

"Anna Stampel."

"It was nice to meet you, Anna. Try working on a smirk."

"You too, Shira. And, I will."

Shira hurried upstairs in to the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked extremely tired, she had dark circles around her usually sparkling green eyes, her hair was messy from tossing around in bed and she had that sleepy paleness. She got back to her bed, ripped off her t-shirt and settled under the blankets. Lying on her side, legs curled up and her hands under the pillow, she felt sleep overwhelm her. A sigh slipped over her lips and the green of the drapes faded away and was replaced by complete darkness. Shira entered a dreamful sleep, and a familiar face appeared.

"Draco..."

---

Shira sat in the common room, sleepy and grumpy. She woke up early and was the first at breakfast. She sat there almost all alone and went back to see if the Slytherin house had come back from the dead yet. All the first years were up and getting ready to go down for breakfast.

"Oh god, I love the first night back!" Marieileen exclaimed happily when she sat down next to Shira on the couch a few minutes later. "I just love those beds!"

Marieileen had always been a morning person. Even if she would have slept only two hours, she would wake up with all the energy of the world. Her golden blond hair was at its shiniest when she just popped out of bed, her reddish brown eyes sparkled brightest in the morning and she was ready to attack the world.

Shira groaned and glared at her. "Shut up. I hate perky morning-people."

"I'm guessing you didn't get much sleep last night?" Marieileen chuckled.

"No, I didn't. And you know how my sleep is holy to me!" Shira crossed her arms and dug herself deeper into the couch pouting. "I fell asleep at one thirty and I woke up at five forty-five. Since then I've been sitting in the Great Hall waiting for bloody breakfast. When it _finally_ came, I ate all alone, just a bunch of overly stupid Ravenclaws laughing and annoying me for a quarter. Just freaking luck I didn't stick my bloody wand up their asses!"

Someone laughed behind them. "Got to remember to watch my step in the morning, I see."

Shira and Marieileen turned around and saw Draco walking over. Shira sent him a death glare, hating him for being the reason she didn't get much sleep. "And I got to cut off my ears so I'm not exposed to your terrible wit," Shira snapped back.

"I guess we got to stay out of each others faces in the morning then, _Shira_." He sure hadn't forgotten the comment she had on their usage of names as he spat her name out. And to emphasise the part of staying out of each other faces, Draco leaned over the couch and came so close to Shira that their noses almost touched. Shira just stared into his intense blue eyes and fought a battle not to show how it felt to feel him this close to her face so early in the morning, when she had had so little sleep and felt so weak.

"Then get the hell out of my face, _Draco_. Or I might shove your broom up your ass."

"Oooh, I would like that." Draco smirked, still touching noses.

Shira grimaced and jumped off the couch. "You are so disgusting, Malfoy. Sometimes I wonder why you're not locked up in a tiny white room."

"I'm going up to eat. See you guys later." Draco left laughing. The room had filled up during their quarrel and the audience looked like they had enjoyed the show.

"Ugh, that... that... _boy_."

"Try and get a half hour sleep, Shira." Pansy smiled. She had just gotten down and caught the end of the show, at once understanding it was because of Shira's lack of sleep. "Come on, people. Show is over, let's get some nourishment." Slytherin common room emptied quickly and Shira curled up on one of the small couches and fell asleep immediately, to a dreamless sleep.

---

Precisely one half hour later someone came in and started poking Shira's shoulder. "Stop it," she mumbled barely audible. They didn't stop. "Stop it," she said louder. The poking continued. She shot open her eyes and groaned.

Draco's face hovered over her and he looked straight into Shira's green eyes. "I'm the Head Boy," Shira snorted at this, but Draco ignored it, "Marieileen sent me, and I've got your schedule. Get up, your first class is Potions, starting now."

Shira smiled, confusing Draco. "Why are you smiling at me?"

"I love potions," she answered. "Finally something going my way." She got up, dodging his head, grabbed her bag and left, leaving him even more confused.

_I love potions_? I knew it was good, but not that good. If it makes her smile like that though, then keep on loving it. Draco shook his head to get rid of the image of her truly happy smile and hurried after her, he had Potions too, of course.

Draco caught up with Shira and they walked silently towards the classroom.

"You're not serious about being Head Boy, are you?" Shira asked.

"I wish. Saint Potter's followers Weaslebe and the queen of mudbloods are."

"Merlin, aren't we lucky to have them ruling over us..."

Draco sneered as they entered the classroom. Everyone was sitting and waiting for class to begin. Draco and Shira sat down next to each other at the desk behind the two mentioned, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Professor Horace Slughorn sat behind his desk, seeing Draco and Shira coming late, but did nothing with it as they continued to talk.

"The school is going to the dogs now that those two are heading it," Draco continued.

Shira laughed a little as Ron turned around and glared at them. "Just ignore us, Weasley. We're just stating some facts."

Ron was just about to answer when Slughorn stood up and glared at them. Hermione gave Ron a shove with her elbow. He turned around and it seemed like he shrunk in his seat seeing Slughorn's expression. After Slughorn had to come back as Potions professor another year, he sure had changed. A little bit more biased towards his Slytherin house and a little more serious. Just the way Shira liked it, at least the bias thing.

Marieileen winked at them from across the room, where she was sitting next to Daphne Greengrass.

"Good to be back, Draco?" Shira smiled.

"Good to be back," he answered.

Slughorn coughed. "Today, I will talk about the upcoming N.E.W.T.s. I am going to be extra strict this year..."

---

The first day of school was over and Shira was sick and tired of hearing about the N.E.W.T.-exams. In Potions, Defence Against The Dark Arts and even Care of Magical Creatures. So important to study, study, study and study. It would be the hardest thing they would ever face, the tests were so cruel some students got mental when they graduated. The teachers didn't exactly say that, but that was what Shira was positive they wanted to say. And if every class they had started with a speech about N.E.W.T.s, no wonder someone got mental.

She and her friends were sitting in the common room talking. Everyone was still on about the summer events. The common room emptied eventually, and those left were Shira, Pansy, Marieileen, Blaise, Gregory, Vincent, Theodore and Draco. It was getting very late, the light was dim and the fire was about to go out, but they wanted to know Draco's story from the summer.

"Where exactly did you go, when you and Snape ran away?" Blaise wanted to know.

Draco certainly enjoyed everyone's attention on him as he casually laid his legs over the arm of the black leather chair. "We went into hiding. In a small house, or cottage, somewhere outside of London. It was awful. The place looked like shit, it had a funky smell about it. I had to sleep on a moth-eaten mattress. And I'm quite sure a family of Doxies used me as a bridge to get from one drape to the other. Which by the way looked like a gang of Dementors with cancer."

They all grinned at that last comment. "Avery came by for a few minutes every day, checking up on us, bringing food and telling us about the latest with our Lord. Until he came with my mother, and we got to go home."

After he didn't say anything else, Theodore asked: "Then what? You just went home and everything was back to normal?"

"Well," Draco started. "Almost normal. I was told to stay a little low, while they sorted things out with the Ministry. So I couldn't send any owls. Stay inside as much as I could, so no Quidditch practice. When things were sorted, I guess you guys got the message. A few members of the Ministry came to ask questions, but mother never let them see me. She said they had had contact with the school, and that in the end it was that McGonagall and the others vowed for me that saved me from being sent to Azkaban. So I got a letter from the school asking if I were to come back, and I said I was. I felt that I couldn't let people down, I mean, I make this place worth coming to," he finished with a smirk.

Marieileen rolled her eyes. "How noble of you..."

"But what about the Dark Lord?" Shira asked. "I mean, we know he was satisfied with the outcome, but what exactly made him not... you know?" She couldn't bare the thought of Draco being murdered.

"Kill me?" he said straight forward. "I don't know. I guess he realised I actually did a good job. Because I did. I managed to get a horde of Death Eaters in here and I managed to shake the safe foundation everyone thinks the school is. And it ended with Dumbledore's death, didn't it?"

"Brilliant," Vincent whispered.

"Does he have any jobs for you this year, or is he waiting for you to graduate?" Theodore asked. He couldn't wait until he could step into the line of Death Eaters. He knew he would just have to wait his turn, Draco's father was higher up than Theodore's father, which made him a little jealous of Draco.

"Snape told me that my job for now is done, I'll just have to wait like every Death Eater-to-be."

"And what about Snape? Where is he and what is he doing now?" Blaise asked.

"I actually don't know," Draco sighed. "I guess he's gone under ground."

Pansy shook her head at the thought of Snape. "Am I the only one feeling that there is something odd about Snape and that night at the tower?" She looked at her friends. "I mean, why do the school and the traitors trust him after he killed Dumbledore? Even Dumbledore said in his letter that we should trust him and not hold anything against Snape. Why trust someone who barges in and kills the most _precious_ person they know?"

"I said yesterday that I think Dumbledore made Snape kill him," Marieileen said.

"What makes you think that?" Draco asked.

"Dumbledore said he made arrangements that would make the situation turn out in a satisfiable way, _they_ have always trusted Snape, Dumbledore even tells us not to hold any grudges against Snape... They_ still_ trust Snape. Didn't you see anything suspicious about him when you stayed in the cottage?"

"I'm not sure," Draco mused. "I guess he was a little avoiding about digging deeper on the subject, but he seemed pretty normal to me. It's not like he's telling his students everything, even if it is his own house."

"He's always acted a little weird," Shira said. "But the more I think about it, the more I agree with you, Pansy. I wouldn't trust Snape anymore if I were the Dark Lord. I would at least watch him closely."

"But I think Snape's going to lie pretty low now," Theodore said. "Until things is over between Potter and the Dark Lord."

"Yeah, I think he has done his share now..."

The group of friends sat and talked for another hour, before they went to bed. Blaise and Marieileen stayed up after the others. Shira and Pansy looked questioningly at each other when they entered the dormitories, but didn't reflect more about it.


	2. Letters From Home Are Depressing

The weeks came and went. September left and took the sun with it. Autumn had finally won. Shira got over the shock of the newly discovered depths of her feelings and things were almost back to normal.

October came with a bang. The first weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend and two days of thundering storms. Many students decided to stay at school that Saturday, inside, dry and safe. But Shira, Marieileen and Pansy had cast the Impervius on them self and lined up to be checked off by Filch, the caretaker. His cat, Mrs. Norris, lurked around the students' feet, and then a loud bang was heard. The lightning and the thunder came at the same time, and it rolled from above their heads to far far away. Mrs. Norris meowed and ran back in to the school.

Shira threw her head back and chuckled hysterically at the dark clouds roaming the sky before she entered one of the carriages that were going to take them to Hogsmeade. "What exactly are we doing in Hogsmeade today?" Marieileen asked, rolling her eyes at Shira's sudden outburst. "I mean, are we going there for a reason?"

"Not a clue," Pansy answered dumping down in a seat and resting her feet on the opposite seat. Just then, Seamus Finnigan and Ron Weasley open the carriage door talking, not noticing it was taken.

"Boo!" Marieileen said calmly. Finnigan and Weasley got wide-eyed and quickly closed the door. Shira and Pansy doubled over laughing, Marieileen crossed her arms smugly and sniggered. "Stupid Gryffindorks." The carriages started moving, shaking violently from the wind.

Well in Hogsmeade the three of them set off to roam the shops. First they visited Honeyduke's. They loaded up with sweets, enough to keep them sticky and sugary until next Hogsmeade visit. In Zonko's they bought just enough to have fun for a few weeks. Then Marieileen wanted to check out the Quidditch Supply Shop. But Pansy and Shira got her quickly out of there, because, as Shira said very clearly:

"You will never ever in your wildest, craziest dreams get on the Slytherin Quidditch team. Not even as a last-year-treat."

Marieileen protested physically.

"Never. It's an all boys thing. Even if half of them would be outplayed by you. Forget it."

They took her to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop to get some extra parchment and ink and other necessary supplies. When all that was done they headed towards The Three Broomsticks to meet up with the boys. The rain had stopped pouring a while ago, but it was still icy cold and windy. While walking Shira happened to look down the road to the left. She saw something that caught her eye, something she hadn't seen in a long time. She pulled to a stop and Pansy bumped into her from behind.

"Shira! What a-"

"Marcus!" Shira screamed as she suddenly recognized Marcus Flint's dark hair and familiar face talking with someone outside Hog's Head. She ran down to him and jumped on him to give him a bone crushing hug. "Marcus!"

"Oh my god, Shira!" Marcus said and returned the bone crushing.

"I've missed you so much, Marcus."

He put her down on her feet and looked at her with a smile that really lit up his face, made you not notice the crooked teeth, and his angry looking eyes sparkled. He was really annoyingly handsome. "I've missed you too, Nasty." Marcus had given Shira that nickname one time when he overheard her being really nasty to some Hufflepuffs.

Ever since Shira was born, she had known Marcus. They were third cousins on Shira's mother's side. He had been a proud little boy of five at her name ceremony. Looking down on her pink face in her crib, carefully playing with her few strands of brown locks, he had sworn he would protect her with his life forever. The adults smiled at his words, kids say the sweetest things. But he had never turned from that promise. If the other kids where mean to her, he would scare them off. That's how she learned to be confident, the thought of him always being there if she couldn't take it anymore, made her strong. When he started Hogwarts, Shira was six. He was then her big hero, the big guy off to learn fun magic. During the holidays he came home and told her all about what he had learned and what it was like at Hogwarts. And when Shira started there, Marcus declared himself her protector and guardian the three years they were in Hogwarts together. Shira had no problem taking care of herself, but he was always there if she needed him. He was like the big brother she never had.

"I haven't seen you in so long, heard from you yeah, but not seen you. That's a mean way to treat your beloved third cousin," Shira said with fake hurt.

He chuckled. "I know, I know. And I'm sorry. But I've been busy." His smile turned wider.

Shira furrowed her eyes and cocked her head. "Oh really? What've you been doing?"

"I'm heading off, Marcus," the guy Marcus had been talking to said and they nodded to each other and the guy Apparated away just as Marieileen and Pansy caught up with them.

"Marieileen! Pansy!" Marcus said surprised. "I'm guessing this is the first Hogsmeade visit of the year?"

"It sure is," Pansy answered and gave Marcus a hug.

Marieileen gave Marcus a warm hug too. "It's good to see you again, Marcus." Both Marieileen and Pansy had gotten close to him too, they spent the holidays together and he was sort of their bodyguard too.

"Want to join us and the boys in Three Broomsticks?" Shira asked.

"Sure, I guess they would like the good news I have," he smiled smugly and they headed for the café.

Shira was curious of what had kept him from being able to see his friends and family lately. Extremely curious. She linked her arm with him as they walked through the crowded street of Hogsmeade. "So, why've you been too busy to see us?"

"Hello," Marcus greeted a familiar face that passed. "You'll know in just a few minutes, Nasty. I really think the boys would want to hear it too."

"We can't even have a hint?" Pansy asked hopefully.

He smirked. "I'm not telling you nosy gits anything!"

They reached Three Broomsticks and entered feeling the bone-cooling from outside let go in favour of thick warmth filled with the smell of Butterbeer and soaking students. Draco and Blaise were sitting in a booth very far in, and both looked up in surprise at the guest the girls had brought.

"Flint!" Draco said, and he and Blaise stood up to greet Marcus in a very manly way over the table.

"Blaise, Draco," Marcus greeted back. "Haven't seen you guys since the Christmas-party at the Linds last year!"

"How you been?" Blaise asked sitting down again.

"Good, very good," he answered.

"Hey guys, move in and make room for us too," Shira commanded and sat down next to Draco with Marcus next to her, followed by Pansy and Marieileen. A waitress came over and they all ordered Butterbeer.

"Where's Theodore?" Pansy asked seeing he wasn't there.

"Right here. Had some business to do in Gringotts. Just Apparated back," Theodore answered sitting down on the other end letting go of his wet cloak. "Marcus! Good to see you!" They shook hands.

"So how's it going with the Falcons?" Draco asked, always interested in Quidditch. When Marcus graduated he got an offer to play for the Falmouth Falcons, so he moved to Falmouth and joined as one of their best chaser in a long time.

Marcus grinned. "Funny you should ask... You guys will now be the first to know before it becomes official." The drinks arrived and he took a long sip before he continued. "David Broadmoor, the captain, had to retire from the team and Quidditch all together about three months ago. He was seriously injured during a friendly training game with a local team. One of the other team's Beaters sent a bludger at him, hit his head and he was sent to St. Mungo's. Now he gets flashes of memory loss. And it turned out Broadmoor had hit on the Beater's girlfriend the night before in a bar, so it was all revenge, and we have tried to keep it from the public. When we realised he really couldn't get better from the hit, the Falcons voted for me as the new captain. I am now the Chaser and captain of the Falmouth Falcons."

"Wow, Marcus," Shira gave him a hug from the side. "That's great!"

"Congratulations, Marcus," Blaise said and shook Marcus' hand.

They all congratulated him and took a drink for the good news.

"So that's why I've been too busy to see you, Shira," Marcus said. "Broadmoor kind of left the team in a bad shape. We were really unorganized and I had quite a job get it all back together, but I believe the team is better than ever now. We're ready for a new season and we're going to seriously kick some bloody ass!"

"Cheers to that!" Marieileen said and raised her glass and downed the warm liquid. "So how about taking in a girl on the team?"

"Forget it, Marieileen," Pansy said.

"Fine."

"So, how are things at school this year?" Marcus asked changing the subject.

"Hard, difficult, stressing, nerve-wrecking, according to the teachers," Theodore sighed. "But it's just all the same."

"Oh, that's right. You guys have N.E. this year. They _are_ stressing and nerve-wrecking. I didn't have to stay back a year because I enjoyed the atmosphere at Hogwarts."

"But something _is_ weird this year," Shira commented.

"True," Draco added, reading her mind at once. "Potter's not there."

Marcus frowned and the rest looked around to see if it was safe to talk. None of those holy Gryffindors or anyone else that "mattered" was anywhere to be seen.

"Have you noticed that Potter's butt lickers tend to disappear for several classes a day sometimes?" Pansy said. "They're here maybe for the first class, and then they're gone for the rest of the day. Completely gone, disappeared from the grounds."

Blaise nodded. "And have you noticed that each time before they disappear or reappear there's a strange atmosphere around the school?"

"Yes!" Marieileen agreed eagerly. "It's just for a few minutes, and it's like something is... _off_."

Blaise nodded again.

"Guys," Pansy said quietly and leaned back in her seat with a worried frown. "Remember what it was like when we practiced Apparating?"

They all looked at her for a second, and it dawned on them. "Those bastards are up to something," Shira said through clenched teeth. Her nose wings vibrated. "They're always up to something. Wonder what the hell it is this time..."

"Something definitely is wrong," Marcus said quietly. "I think you guys have to be careful. I think I know why Potter's not at school, but I'm not allowed to say. The Death Eater meetings are full of spells to prevent us from saying something we shouldn't on top of the vow of secrecy. It's not looking so good, and it's definitely something to do with the Order of the Phoenix. We're working hard to find out what they're up to and why it's so important that Potter can't go to school. You've got to be careful around Potter's friends, that's all I can tell you. They're in on it. Lay low."

"We'll do that," Pansy said. "If they don't annoy us."

"Then we've got to kill them then," Shira said. "I'm annoyed by them being alive."

"I'm with you on that," Draco said and nudged her arm.

"Then it's settled, next chance we get, we do it."

Draco smirked. "We can do it now." He inched closer and added in a lower voice. "If you want to."

It took a few seconds before Shira realised what he meant. She hit his head hard and pushed him back. "Merlin, Draco! Is that all you think about? We're talking about killing our worst enemies and you misinterpret something like _that_ into having sex?"

He chuckled innocently. "It's not my fault. It's those male brain cells. But I can't just kick them out, I would loose my brilliant intelligence. I can't just live on my good looks, it would get boring."

"Merlin..." She waved her hand at him dismissively, but smiling.

Marcus laughed at his two friends. "Well, this has been fun... I've got to go. Quidditch duties call." He stood up and Marieileen and Pansy stood up and moved to let him through. Shira followed him.

"Promise me you won't let it go so long without seeing me this time, Marcus," she said and gave him a big hug.

"I promise." He let her go and ruffled her hair. "You take care of yourself now. Just owl me if you miss me." She nodded obediently and sat back down next to Draco. "Bye guys, lay low." He waved goodbye and left.

---

Monday and double Potions right after breakfast. And double Defence Against The Dark Arts after lunch. And double Care of Magical Creatures right before dinner. Shira did not look forward to this day. Just the thought of it was exhausting. And it was going to be worse. She rested her chin in her hand and looked tiredly at her slice of dry bread. "Goodness, how I loath Mondays..." she sighed.

"Why?" Marieileen asked full of energy. "It's a new week, new beginning, and a new opportunity to make someone's life miserable."

"Every stupid class I have involve Gryffindorks. I have not finished my homework for Potions, just because you absolutely wanted me to play Exploding Snaps with you every free second of the weekend. And I have Care of Magical Creatures right before dinner and Hagrid usually makes me loose my appetite. I love dinner."

"There there, sweets. Gryffindorks are there for us to torment. Enjoy! I gave you a choice about the Snaps, you refused to do homework. I remember you begging me to keep playing when _I tried_ to do my homework. So you're not the only one who's not done their Potions work. Draco, Blaise and Theodore too. And Pansy's behind in her homework too. And Hagrid... Well, I can't help you there." Marieileen petted Shira's back.

"You can always skip that last class and join me in Divination," Pansy suggested.

Shira rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but I don't think so, I actually think I prefer Hagrid then."

"Oooo, post is here," Marieileen exclaimed as the flapping of wings came from above and a bushy black one dumped a letter on her slice of bread and jam, to Marieileen's cursing. Shira looked up to see a brown one aiming in on her. It landed gracefully next to her goblet of pumpkin juice and held out its leg so she could untie the letter. The owl didn't leave so she realised this was a letter that demanded a quick answer. And seeing as the owl was her father's, she wondered what it could be.

_Dear Shira._

_I'm just writing to ask from your mother and me how it is going with the subject we talked about just before you left for school? This is times that can become difficult, even for you, even though I am one of the closest to _the answer_. Your mother and I believe that if your future is secured on a family-plan, you will stand safer in _the question_._

_Send the answer with my owl before classes._

_Your father, Delano_

Shira crunched the parchment in her hands. "Just go home without an answer," she told the owl. It scowled at her and held out its leg. "Go home, stupid owl! Coming home without an answer is answer enough!!" The owl bit her finger and it flew away at an amazing speed.

"Stupid bloody..." Shira muttered with her head in her hands.

Pansy and Marieileen looked at her. "What was in that letter, Shira?" Pansy asked.

Shira jerked her head up, as if just remembering she was in the Great Hall. "Nothing, just a meaningless letter from my father," she said with exasperation. "I forgot my Charms book, I'll just go and –" With that she hurriedly left the table and rushed towards the doors, with the letter crushed in her fist.

"Charms?" Marieileen said puzzled. "She doesn't have Charms today..."

Shira passed Draco and Blaise on her way out. "What's the hurry, Lind?" Draco called after her. She turned and looked at him with a look that startled him a little. She looked extremely hurt and pissed off at the same time. He saw her fist, and that a piece of parchment stuck out from it. He didn't push the matter as she walked off. Turning to a puzzled Blaise he just shrugged.

Down in the Slytherin common room Shira threw the letter with all her might into the fireplace. The fire hissed and engulfed the letter in warm flames. She stomped into her dorm and lay down on the bed for a few minutes to calm down.

Why does it upset me so much? Father just wants me safe and secure and happy. It's nothing to be that upset about. But he shouldn't care about me getting married yet! I'm just seventeen, what the hell is the rush? And he should butt out of it! It's none of his business!

"Let me take care of it myself, father!" Shira yelled out to the empty dorm. She hammered her fists into the bed. After a few minutes of slow breaths to calm down, she got up and headed to her first class.

Outside the Potions classroom everyone was already waiting. "What happened just before?" Marieileen asked as Shira joined her best friend.

Shira took a deep breath. "Nothing, just a letter from home."

"Is everything all right?" she asked concerned. "Everyone is okay?"

"Yes, yes, everything and everyone is fine. Nothing to worry about."

But Marieileen didn't look convinced. "Are you sure?"

Shira noticed Draco paying close attention to the conversation, she glanced at him and he held her gaze for a second before she turned back. "Yes, Marieileen. Everyone is all right. You know how my father is, he can get me wired up for the most stupid little _things_."

She nodded knowingly. "Okay then."

Slughorn opened the door and they got pushed inside by other Slytherins. Suddenly Shira heard Draco's worried voice whisper behind her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Draco. Everything is fine. Nothing you need to worry about," she whispered back.

"I know letters from home can be unpleasant," he said quietly.

Shira looked at him. What did he mean by that? "Well, this letter was just stupid. Just me overreacting. Stop bothering about it." She sat down next to Marieileen irritated. Why is everyone so damn curious about that letter?

"I'm just looking out for you," Draco said with a more superior voice sitting down on the desk next to them, with Blaise. "Making sure you are fine."

"I am perfectly capable of looking out for myself," she answered not looking at him.

"Silence!" Slughorn tapped with his wand on the desk. Everyone fell dead silent.

Shira turned to Draco and whispered: "By the way, since when did you even care that much about me?"

Draco looked straight into her eyes, with an expression she wasn't sure how to read.

---

Late the same day, Shira got another letter. She was just about to go to bed, had just lifted the blanket about to crawl under it when her father's owl knocked its beak at the window next to her bed.

"Post? At this hour?" Pansy asked muffled against her blanket, her nose barely sticking out.

"Uh huh," Shira answered and opened the window. A terrible wind filled the room, Marieileen shuddered in her sleep, the bird flew in and landed smoothly on Shira's bedside table and she closed the window.

"For you?" Pansy's muffled voice sounded again.

"Uh huh."

"Do you even breathe under there?" Millicent Bullstrode asked smiling from her bed, where she was reading a book.

"Actually, no," Pansy laughed. "But it just feels so good when the autumn winds roar outside."

"What about oxygen?"

"My mind gets foggy, and I have wonderful weird dreams."

Millicent shook her head smiling. Meanwhile Shira had sat down on her bed and opened the letter addressed for her. Once again from her father.

_Shira_

_I know that this subject bothers you, but I wish you would get some speed into it. You will thank me later for pushing it._

_And I am not happy about my owl coming back so quickly this morning without any answer. You know I don't tolerate being ignored like that, and by my own daughter... I am very angry and disappointed in you. I would prefer a rude answer over total indifference. If you do it again, I _will_ punish you, and you know what that means. I would rather not have to punish you, because it shouldn't be necessary, you should obey and respect your parents. I don't want to find out that your mother and I didn't raise you to respect your parents at all times._

_I will be going away on business for a few weeks, so I would appreciate it if you updated your mother at least once a week. She too is very intent on you getting settled as soon as possible. You are her only daughter and child. We know you will be safer with a husband to watch over you._

_Answer ASAP._

Overreacting much, father? She sighed and reached for her backpack to get a piece of parchment and her quill.

"Who's it from?" Pansy asked. She had emerged from under her blanket and was now lying on her side.

"Father. He's still on about this marriage thing."

Pansy looked at her friend. "Was it he that wrote that letter from breakfasts?"

Shira nodded as she wrote the reply.

"And was it about marriage?"

She nodded again.

"Why the sudden rush to get you married?"

Shira finished writing and looked at Pansy. "He wants me to be all settled when the big battle comes. He thinks it would be safer for me. Guess I'm too much for him to look after when he goes into war. And it's not like I can't look after myself."

"And why are you getting so upset about it?"

"I want to take my time to find someone I love. At least the time I was given by mother and father. I have always dreamt about that intense passionate love. My parents married each other because of love, no one pushed a partner on them. So why should they do it to me? And don't you think it would be safer to be married to someone that loves you if there's a war? Why would someone who doesn't like me make sure I live?"

"Got a point there, Shira. But do you actually think it would be so bad to have your parents pick him for you? It's not like they would pick someone out of the blue. They would see how you two are together, look together, they would judge his family and everything. It's actually kind of exciting. My parents just told me that they have started looking for me."

Shira sniggered. "You're weird, Pansy, you know that? But I love you anyway. And thanks for the talk."

"Anytime, and I love you too, Shira," Pansy smiled and turned around to sleep.

Shira looked over the answer she had written to her father.

_Dear Father_

_I am sorry for disappointing you. And you are right about this subject bothering me. I would like to have someone now, someone I was going to marry, but I want to find him myself and I don't want it to be rushed._

_I do respect both you and mother, I just got a little carried away. Again I am sorry for disappointing you and making you angry._

_I will keep in touch with mother on anything worth telling about._

_Shira_

Yes, that would do. She folded it up and magically marked and sealed it with her family- emblem. "Here, go home with a bloody answer." Without even a look on Shira or anything else the owl flew out after the letter had been tied to its leg.

Shira waved her wand to shut the window and then curled up under her blanket and sighed. I _refuse_ to marry a guy of their choice. Guess I have to start seducing. But I need a rescue-plan. "If it goes absolutely wrong," she whispered to herself.

But I won't go wrong. Shira knew she was a beautiful and wanted girl, if she wanted a guy, she could have him. Even Harry Potter, but she would never ever touch him, even with a disinfection suite. She could have anyone she set her mind to getting. It just hadn't been a big issue up until now, she hadn't felt the need to have a boy by her side. So she hadn't tried, not even the big crush on her cocky housemate. Maybe she should now. It was after all the most sensible choice to begin with. Shira couldn't believe why she hadn't gone after him before, it's not like she had anything to lose. She wasn't afraid of being hurt, or anything. She had just pushed the thought out of her head, settled with feeling and doing nothing about it. So whatever was holding her back before, it wouldn't anymore. At least not after she had found a rescue-plan.


	3. Not The Worlds Best Rescue Plan

The next morning Shira got an idea for the rescue-plan. She was heading down for breakfast with Marieileen and Pansy and they were catching up with the boys at the top of the stairs. As Shira saw them, an idea popped into her head. She smirked and sniggered.

"Hello boys! Good morning, isn't it?" Shira said coming in between Blaise and Theodore linking arms with them.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Blaise asked. "Remembering yesterday, you were really out of it."

"Well, my lovely Mr. Zabini, I have just made a new friend."

"Oh my, who?"

"My mind, Blaise, my mind. I had forgotten how useful it actually is, so I brought it back into the warmth of my loving arms."

"You got to shut it, Shira," Draco said looking back at her smirking. "Talking about your arms and warmth like that. You're turning me on."

"Well then, you would probably like hearing the real story, Draco." Shira freed herself from Theodore and Blaise, stroking Theodore's arm playfully on the way. She walked up to Draco linking arms with him. This is nice, she thought for a fraction of a second. "I cut open my own head, took out my brain, dug out my mind and held it in my warm embrace, letting the liquids from my fresh brain stain my clothes."

Draco shuddered.

"Still turning you on?" she whispered sweetly in his ear and rushed through the Great Hall doors and to the Slytherin table.

"That was disgusting, Lind," Draco called after her.

"Nothing more than you deserve, Draco," Marieileen laughed from behind him.

"You just wish it was you who turned me on." Draco winked at her.

"I don't think so, Draco. See, I've got a problem with boys like you, you've got a testosterone level to low to satisfy me," Marieileen smirked and sat down next to Shira, who had her own thoughts about Draco's testosterone.

"Merlin, what is this?" Draco threw his arms out as he sat down. "Everyone-against-Draco-day? Sure is starting to feel like it."

"Well, at least I have an excuse for being mean," Shira said. "I've got Care of Magical Creatures. And not just a double period like always, no, I've got to stay there until lunch, for four bloody periods, because we're going to study the damn Thestrals. They've apparently been a bit on edge lately. So every class Hagrid has, from fifth year and up, is going to sit and study them."

"That doesn't sound like fun," Pansy said.

"And guess what? I'm teamed up with Brown, Granger and Longbottom. Conveniently enough Longbottom can _see_ the damn things, so I've got to listen to him for four hours."

"I feel so sorry for you. But you'll survive," Draco brushed it off.

"Longbottom might not survive," Shira muttered. "I'm going to be _so_ expelled before lunch."

---

"Gather in yer groups, people. Sit down and start studying. I think everyone has a' least one in each group that can see them Thestrals," Hagrid roared. The Care of Magical Creatures class had just arrived down by the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid was placing a few nasty bloody steaks neatly on the edge of the forest.

Shira stomped behind Lavender Brown, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. They sat down on a cold tree trunk, the three Gryffindors in a bunch and Shira as far away from them she could on the trunk. She tore open her bag and fiercely pulled out a notebook and waited.

And they waited. Everyone was dead quiet. Even the wind seemed to have taken a break from trying to freeze them to death.

Shira shuffled impatiently.

A crack was heard from the forest and with her eyes Shira followed a twig falling from the top of a tree to the ground.

Nothing happened.

They waited.

"Longbottom! What's going on?" Shira asked him. "Are they here yet or are they staying away from you gross odour?"

Granger looked fiercely at Shira, which she simply ignored.

"L-look, one is coming there," Longbottom answered and pointed a chubby finger at some place in the forest.

"Oh yeah, there. How could be so stupid not to see it?" Shira slapped her forehead dramatically and fixed her eyes on a spot pretending to see a Thestral. "Yeah, there it is, all pink and fussy."

Suddenly the meat lying in front of them began to disappear piece by piece. And not at all where Shira had fixed her gaze. Lavender Brown shrieked. "Shut it, Brown," Shira said. "Or I'll tell it to snack on your fresh skin."

"How are you supposed to tell it anything, Lind?" Granger said smartly. "You can't see it. How do you know what you're talking to?"

"That was just stupid, Granger. I happen to know exactly where it stands right now, 'cause I can see it trying to eat your nasty hair. Probably thinks it's a dead hairy beast. Sure looks like it to me."

Granger screamed and turned and waved her arms around.

Shira continued: "Besides I can just make Longbottom talk to them for me. He's so thick he wouldn't know what damage he'd be doing with helping me out."

Hagrid wobbled over. "What's goin' on 'ere, Hermione? What ye screamin' 'bout?"

"Miss Lind is not taking the project seriously, she is joking around and will probably scare the Thestrals away soon," Granger answered smugly.

"Hmm," Hagrid mused. "Can't have any o' that, can we, Miss Lind. Please do ye job." Hagrid looked seriously at Shira, she just looked back with an innocent expression. Hagrid left as someone called for him.

Shira turned to Granger and glared daggers at her. "Like your screaming wouldn't scare them away. But I'll let that one slip for now, Granger. You were actually right." Then she turned to her notebook and started scribble nonsense on it.

"Can you see anything strange about them, Neville?" Granger asked Longbottom.

"N-no, I don't think so," he answered nervously.

"We'll just wait then."

After an hour Shira started to get really bored. It was so chilly sitting there doing nothing to keep warm. She had used half of her ink bottle just writing nonsense and drawing doodles. Here and there she had written: "Stupid Thestrals doing nothing weird." After finishing off the steaks, they had apparently laid down for a nap. Shira didn't know Thestrals did that. She had heard that they could be pretty vicious, and taking a peaceful nap after breakfast sure didn't qualify as vicious in her book. Then the creatures had started roaming about the edge of the forest looking for more meat that Hagrid had placed there while they slept.

"Oh, this is so bloody interesting," Shira complained. "What the hell are they doing now, Longbottom?"

"Uh, th-they're still just looking for the f-food."

"I can't stand having your stupid stuttering telling me what they're up to. Can I kill you, Longbottom? Then all of us can see them."

"Lind!" Granger hissed.

"Granger!" Shira hissed back with a smirk.

---

Shira was on her way to lunch, she had sneaked out from class a little earlier and had been down in her dormitory to freshen up. Sitting outside in that chilly October weather, windy and with winter in the air, didn't exactly do anyone good. On her way to the Great Hall she saw Theodore coming out from a classroom surrounded by classmates. Shira ran up to him.

"Theo?"

He looked up from his bag and before he had the time to response, Shira whispered seductively in his ear. "Can we talk?" She noticed him shiver slightly.

"Uh um," he stuttered. "Sure..."

Shira dragged him into an empty classroom. "Sit," she ordered. He sat down on a desk while she walked nervously back and forth in front of him.

Theodore got impatient. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

Shira stopped dead in her tracks and suddenly stood in front of him. "We were good together, right?"

"Uh-"

"I mean, we really cared about each other? We had fun together? We looked good together?" She was standing really close now. What had started out as a little odd, had now turned into something Theodore really thought he would like.

"Of course, we were the best," he smirked.

"Glad you feel that way. See, I've been thinking..." She crossed her arms over her chest and put a finger on her lips like she was thinking really hard.

"Oh, you were?" He leaned in, their faces was close.

"If, by the end of this year, we are both single, what do you say we hook up?" She looked straight into his eyes, mesmerizing him.

"How 'bout we hook up now, Lind?" Theodore leaned even further, he could feel her breath.

"Now now, Theo, I'm talking abo-" He interrupted her with a kiss. Just held his lips on hers for a few seconds, before he grabbed her waist and pulled her between his legs, kissing her deeper. Shira kissed him back, curling her hands around his neck, playing with his dirty blond hair. He licked her lips for permission to enter, she hesitated, but let him in. His hands were roaming her back, but when he tried to get under her shirt, she broke away.

"Theodore Nott! I was talking about at the end of the year. My parents liked you, so I thought that if there were no hope for either of us when we graduate, maybe we could try again. What do you say?"

He licked his lips. "Sure you don't want it now?"

"Yes, I'm sure I don't want it now," she answered impatiently.

"Well, it's fine by me. Just let me know, and I'll be ready."

"Thank you, let's just hope we don't have to do it. Use each other as a last resort."

Theodore stood up, brushing off. "I wouldn't mind. You're a hot girl, and I'm a boy. I wouldn't mind the least." He walked out, slapping her butt on the way. Shira groaned and followed him to lunch.

"So, how did it go with the Thestral-project?" Draco asked as Shira sat down next to Pansy grabbing a banana.

"Oh you know," Shira said gently peeling off the banana. "Granger being all mudbloody, Brown a sorry excuse for a girl and Longbottom stuttered my ears bloody, Thestrals being boring. I sneaked out a little early."

"And how much does Granger hate you today?" Marieileen asked wickedly.

Shira slowly took a bite of her banana, thinking. Draco glanced at her doing that. "I didn't call her mudblood. I scared her badly once. I actually took it more at Longbottom today. But she always defended him, so on a scale from 1 to 10, I guess... 7."

"Good job, sweets."

Shira took another bite of her banana, a big bite. Draco gazed at her as she bit down, his mouth slightly open. "What are you looking at, Malfoy?" she asked with her mouth full.

He tore his eyes away from the banana and glared at her. "Thought you were going to choke on that banana."

"Hehe, Shira biting down on a banana. Brings back good memories," Theodore said and winked to her. "Can't blame you for staring, Draco."

"Drop dead, Nott."

Pansy nudged Shira in the side and raised an eyebrow. Shira caught on and put the rest of the banana in her mouth. Then out. Both Blaise, Draco and Theodore turned their heads. Tightened her lips around it and let it go in again, and out. She licked the tip of it. All the while chuckling inside at the guys going temporarily dumb. She then put an arm around Pansy and looked seductively at her. Offered her the banana and she slowly licked the top. By now they had gotten half of the male Slytherin population's attention. Gregory literally drooled.

"Enough, girls," Marieileen interrupted. "I'm getting horny." And they laughed. The boys got back to reality.

"Can't wait 'til graduation," Theodore said dreamily into the air.

"What happens on graduation?" Draco frowned.

"We graduate," Shira answered quickly.

Theodore gave Draco a fatherly squeeze over the shoulders. "I get something you never will experience, son."

"Merlin, Theo," Shira said exasperated. "Come on, let's go to Defence-class."

Outside in the hallway they caught up with The Golden Trio, or The Golden Twosome. Granger and Weasley had their heads together whispering.

"My my, what do we have here?" Draco said smugly. "What are you up to this time?"

They turned their heads around. "Sod off, Malfoy," Granger said.

"That was weak, you filthy mudblood." The gang of Slytherins had stopped a few metres away from the two Gryffindors. "What've you done with the precious Chosen One? Thought you two were joined at the hips, Weaslebe. Never thought of you as the gay guy, but hey, that's life, you learn something all the time." Draco was now slowly walking over. "Is it fun, doing it the boy-way?"

"Why can't you just shut up, Malfoy?" Weasley said and tightened his fists.

Draco rolled his eyes and ignored it. "So, is he dead or what?" He crossed his arms over his chest and waited for the good news of Potter's death.

Granger and Weasley both gasped and Granger took charge. She walked up close to Draco with fire in her eyes. "He is _not_ dead, and no matter what, it's none of your bloody business, you filthy pure-blood," she hissed fiercely.

"Merlin, mudblood, you spit when you talk," Draco said and wiped his face off with the sleeve of his cloak. And then he walked and bumped into Granger and Weasley's shoulders. The rest of the Slytherins followed him and glared at the holy Gryffindorks.

"You've got to burn that cloak now, you know that?" Marieileen told Draco.

"Yeah, I know. Too bad, they were my favourites," he sighed sadly.

They parted with Blaise, he didn't take the advanced Defence Against The Darks Arts-class that his friends took, and they entered the Defence-classroom.

Inside Mad-Eye Moody had cleared everything. The desks where gone and all the walls where empty. Well, almost empty. They where covered in pillows and thick mattresses, the floor was covered with it too.

"Find yourselves a pillow," Mad-Eye ordered. "Today, we're going to practice the Anti-Apparition Jinx we studied last time. I've made McGonagall remove the Apparition-block on this classroom only, so you will be able to Apparate But please, not farther than a couple of feet to the side." Mad-Eye walked amongst the sitting students, towering above them, throwing shadows on every student he walked past. "I want you in pairs, in two lines. One of you will try to Apparate and the other will say the incantation to stop their partner from Apparating The reason I have the room covered in pillows and other soft materials is, that since none of you have done this before, performing the jinx can make the Apparating person fly across the room. Now get lined up!"

Marieileen paired up with Daphne Greengrass, Draco with Theodore and Shira paired up with Pansy. "I'll try to Apparate first, and you do the jinx," Shira said to her.

"Okay, that's perfectly fine with me," Pansy answered smirking. "You get the throwing around and I can just stand here safe. This will be fun!"

"Hey, I'm not a rag doll, you try to do it right!"

"Just try," Pansy said mischievously and got her 14 inch mahogany wand ready.

Mad-Eye walked through the two lines of students. "They key here is to know when your enemy is Apparating You have to be able to feel it or see it before it's too late. Everyone ready? Go on!"

Pansy and Shira looked into each others eyes. Shira prepared to Apparate, she disappeared and just when she appeared a feet to the left, Pansy said the incantation, she was too slow and it hit a pillow on the wall. It looked like an invisible hand tried to grab the pillow, but didn't make it.

"Again," Pansy said. Shira stepped back and got ready. She prepared to Apparate again, and she felt air around her start to compress, when she felt herself being dragged the other way. She went flying in to the wall and landed on the floor with a groan.

"Merlin, Pansy. That's some power you got there." Shira stood up and dusted herself off.

"Sorry, honey. Can't help it, I was born with them."

Around them sparks was flying everywhere, people flew into walls or Apparated without being hit. Marieileen performed a perfect jinx on Daphne and Theodore made Draco fly across the room. Shira and Pansy laughed at the sight and continued practicing. Several wall-hits and bruises later, Pansy finally got the hang of it, and they switched places. Every other hit, Pansy managed to Apparate faster than Shira could react or got thrown across the room. Shira still hadn't got it perfect when class was over and they all walked out headed for the next class pretty beat up.

---

Shira was sitting in the common room trying to focus on the book she was reading for her Charms-class the same day. It wasn't easy to focus when her entire body was sore from being thrown around by Pansy, and on top of that the subject was as boring as listening to Longbottom stuttering. She had read that same sentence over and over a thousand times. If she still couldn't remember it, then how would she be able to remember the whole bloody chapter? Professor Flitwick was probably going to repeat it twice in class anyway, so it wasn't that important for Shira to read it. _Accio: And the side effects of accidentally summoning an occupied coffin._ An entire chapter about that, she couldn't believe it! She gritted her teeth and looked up to see everyone else sitting fully concentrated. Lucky bastards!

In one of the comfy sofa-groups they were sitting. Marieileen next to Shira on a two-seater with the same chapter for Charms, Blaise next to Pansy and Vincent in the biggest couch, and Draco... Looking very comfortable in a huge chair, with his legs on the table, a book leaning against the arm of his chair, a piece of parchment in his lap and a messy quill between his fingers, sat Draco. Shira's eyes rested on his concentrated face, a smile crossed her face. His ice blue eyes were moving quickly through the pages of the book. He chewed his lips and wrote something down on the parchment.

Suddenly Draco looked up at her through blond bangs. His face got annoyed. Shira quickly turned her attention back to the boring book. Thank Merlin her hair fell and covered her slightly blushing face. But it didn't skip Draco's eyes though; he saw her movement and pink cheeks and looked puzzled at her. What was that about? I have _never_ seen her blush. Draco shook his head. That bitch.

Shira closed her book with a loud noise just as Draco was about to ask what was wrong with her. "I give up. Night, guys," she yawned and walked up to the girls' dormitory. She hadn't noticed Draco's mood-changes.


	4. I Think I'm Going Crazy

Somehow Shira managed to awaken Draco's attention that night studying in the common room. Awaken his attention in a different way. He started to notice the small things about how she acted. He saw how she sometimes glanced quickly in his direction, the way she looked into his eyes when they talked, how she seemed to be very aware of him when he was close by. He had never seriously thought of her as something more than a friend, and now recognizing all the signs, it was pretty obvious that she had thought of him as more than a friend. He couldn't have mistaken it, he did after all have a lot of experience with girls falling for his charm.

Draco had flirted with almost every girl within his age range in Slytherin. Pansy had been a flirt for several years, but it was just innocent play from both of them. Even Marieileen had been a short flirt at a party a couple of years ago, just making out in a corner all night, both drunk. And it had been Millicent, Daphne, Daphne's little sister, Adrian Pucey's little sister, and a few more, graduated and younger. Sometimes just a flirt, sometimes kissing and fooling around, sometimes sex. He even had one of them steady for a couple of months. But he had never thought of coming on to Shira, and she hadn't tried to come on to him. She had seemed so out of reach in that area, it was like there had been a block in his mind. Now it was gone and that felt good. Draco decided to give it a go and thought it would be interesting to see how it could turn out.

---

It was Tuesday and the first class was Transfiguration, a class that only Draco and Shira shared. It was an advanced class, for students that needed the class in their choice of profession. Shira had several options for future work, either Potions professor or something in the Ministry. Potions professor would be a little complicated seeing as she wasn't so good at teaching stuff away and she didn't like the thought of having to be around children, deal with them every day. But she really wanted to work with Potions, so she wasn't sure yet. In the Ministry it would be on top in the Obliviator Headquarters or Best, Being and Spirit Divisions. She wanted options, but what she wanted the most was the Beast Division, some good had to come from the Magical Creatures class with bloody Hagrid.

Shira let out a big yawn as Nymphadora Tonks entered the Transfigurations classroom. Everyone fell silent as they stared in shock at their professor. They all knew their professor was a Metamorphmagus, but she had never changed her appearance much in school. Now they saw a professor with furry cat-ears, long curly whiskers and a fluffy tail. And of course that pink hair. Tonks giggled at everyone staring at her weird look. "I see you all noticed my cat-parts. I just wanted to look a little odd today, nothing more."

With a giant smile Tonks jumped up on her desk and sat down.

"And I think it fits the subject today, because we're going to learn about transfiguring ourselves. I will go over the basics, and you will study the graphs and drawings and have written a 10 inch essay by the end of the class."

Everyone moaned, but Tonks simply looked at them with a world of patience. Slowly they began to open their books and fold out parchments. She began talking about the self-transfiguration, writing and drawing on the black board, but Shira couldn't concentrate. She tuned out right away and yawned again.

"Tired?" Draco whispered.

Shira nodded. "Couldn't sleep last night."

"Should have come to me, I would've helped you sleep." He paused and added with a smirk: "After a while."

"Oh yeah?" Shira smirked back.

Tonks eyed them and they fell silent. Shira stared at her and pretended to be very interested, while she was drawing imaginary shapes on Tonks' face until she was done talking. "Now you can start on that essay. Anyone who doesn't finish 10 inches before the class is over will have to do a total of 30 inches for homework. Those who do finish, will have no homework."

Shira giggled to herself as she opened her text-book.

"What's so funny?" Draco asked amusedly.

"Tonks look incredibly funny with colourful circles and squares and triangles on her face." Shira smiled stupidly.

Draco snorted. "Okay. You all right?" He felt her forehead with his wrist. "Don't think you have fever," he said jokingly.

She brushed his hand away, it gave her head funny tingles. "I was bored. It was all in my mind. I can draw the most amazing things in my mind." She gazed at him for a moment. "You would look good with blue freckles and a yellow moustache."

"Of course," he smirked. "I look good in anything, I always look good."

"Yes, you do," Shira said barely audible, more to herself than anyone else.

"What?"

She blushed lightly. "Nothing! Nothing at all. Nothing at all..." With a stern voice she added: "Now get to work, Malfoy."

"Yes, mother." They both smirked.

The only thing heard in the classroom the next half hour was frantic scribbling from quills and pages quickly turned in search of stuff on self-transfiguration. Shira had always been good in Transfiguration, one of the three subjects she always got the best grades in. So doing that essay was a piece of cake. She finished it in good time before the others, even Granger, with an extra 4 inches on the 10 they needed, and walked up to Tonks and handed it over. Tonks conjured a measuring tape and smiled proudly as she saw that Shira's essay was 14 inches long.

"Good job, Miss Lind," she said in a low voice. "You can go back to your seat and catch up on some schoolwork if you have any."

"Can't I leave, professor?" Shira asked.

"No, you can't. Class is not over yet, so can sit back down." Tonks put her essay aside and continued grading some other papers.

Shira walked slowly back to her seat. She passed Granger and stopped to see how far the bookworm had gotten. A big smirk spread across her lips as she saw Granger's essay only halfway.

"What do you want, Lind?" Granger whispered when she noticed Shira standing there.

"So far behind..."

Back at her seat next to Draco, Shira laid her head down on her arms on the desk. It was about 20 minutes left so she figured she'd try to sleep. She faced Draco and folded her hands in a comfortable way under her cheek. "Wake me if I snore or drool," she whispered to him.

"You know I won't," he whispered back and signed his name on the parchment. Shira stuck her tongue out at him. "Put it back in, an owl might fly by and bite it off." She stuck her tongue out again and closed her eyes as he went to hand in his essay. When he got back to the desk he could tell she had fallen asleep because of the heavier than normal breathing.

Draco leaned back and looked at her for a few minutes. There was something about her right then and there that made him feel something strange. With her sleeping face squished upon her hands and a calm look on her face, he felt a slight tingle somewhere in his gut, he had never felt that before. She was actually really cute lying there, so cute he had to wake her up, to make her not so cute. He poked her shoulder, hard.

"Ow!" she yelled and sat up, then realised she was in a classroom and sunk back in her seat. Everyone was looking at her, Tonks with a stern look that didn't suit her at all. "Sorry, professor. I bit my tongue," Shira said with her most sugary voice. Tonks rolled her eyes and continued grading papers.

"What the fuck did you do that for?" Shira hissed to Draco.

He sat slouching with his arms crossed over his chest and a smug look on his face. "You were drooling," he simply answered.

Shira wiped her mouth to check. Dry as a bone. "No, I wasn't. You stupid git!"

"You told me to wake you if you snored or drooled, you drooled, so I poked you."

"I wasn't drooling, but whatever I was doing you didn't have to poke so damn hard." She grabbed her shoulder, just remembering she was hurt. "There's going to be a hole in my arm now."

"There's not going to be a hole in your arm, I didn't poke that hard, and you _were_ drooling."

"No, I di-"

"Class dismissed," Tonks said suddenly. "Everyone who finished their essay, please hand it in and enjoy the evening, those who didn't finish, good luck with your homework."

Draco and Shira quickly packed their bags and continued the quarrel. "Why do you always poke so hard?" Shira asked walking behind him out.

"I don't poke hard, it's just you who are delicate."

"_I am not delicate_, thank you very much!" They were side by side now.

"Yes you are." He pushed her shoulder and she bumped into a boy from Ravenclaw.

"Ew! Germs!" She jumped back in horror and brushed off her cloak where it had come in contact with the other student and dried it off on Draco's cloak. "Here you go."

Now he jumped back and brushed off. "Thank you, another cloak to burn, another night with nightmares of germs and monsters." The Ravenclaw-boy walked away and tried to look important and too mature to be within reaching length of someone as childish as Draco and Shira.

"Draco Malfoy has nightmares of germs and monsters? Wow, never would have thought."

"Shut up, Lind."

"What are you two fighting about now?" Pansy asked coming out into the Entrance Hall where the two had just arrived.

"Draco poked a hole in my shoulder, and claims that I'm _delicate_."

"You told me to wake-"

"Yes! But I didn't ask you to injure me!"

"And I didn't want you to cover me in germs!"

They were standing face to face looking into each other's eyes between Pansy and Daphne Greengrass. Suddenly Shira broke into laughter. "You're so stupid, Draco."

"Ditto, Lind."

"See you at lunch," she said and went across the hall and outside, to have Herbology with Pansy and Daphne. Draco stood there, looking at her leaving figure, the door closing and blocking his view. The same little tingle he felt just minutes earlier came back. Resolutely he turned around and headed for his next class.

---

"How's the hole?" Draco asked Shira as she, Marieileen and Pansy came into the Charms classroom.

"It still hurts, asshole," Shira snapped and sat down on the desk row in front of him.

"I can't remember poking your ass... Because I would definitely remember that." He leaned forward and tried to check her behind out, as much as he could see of it when Shira was sitting with her cloak on.

"Of course you would remember that, because it's damn good to poke," she said as she turned around and hit his head, then pushed him back down into his seat. "Now stop looking, it's too good for you."

Marieileen rolled her eyes behind her book. "You two _really_ are going at each other today," she said with a motherly voice, as if she was talking to two siblings. Pansy had obviously told her about what they did in the Entrance Hall.

They both went quiet, just in time when professor Flitwick came through the door. The short wizard climbed up on his pile of books and, just as Shira thought he would, began repeating the chapter about accidentally summoning occupied coffins.

Shira sat and tried really hard to listen and take notes. She started off doing a good job, but soon lost track. Her eyes fell down on the books Flitwick was standing on, she squinted to try and read the titles, but it was just too far away. Odd how the title to every book he stood on was printed in very fine print. She glanced at Marieileen and Pansy to see if they were paying attention. Marieileen was leaning her head in her hands and had obviously fallen asleep, her eyes closed and mouth slightly open. Pansy was staring at something. Shira followed her gaze and saw a cloudy sky through a window, nothing interesting, but she decided to stare at it too. It was very beautiful, the more she looked at it, pretty fluffy formations in bluish grey melting into each other. It looked like it would rain later, maybe even thunder. Flitwick was going on and on, he was talking about how to reverse Accio if the spell caster and the body somehow switched placed.

As Shira was sitting there observing the traffic of clouds, a feeling like she was being watched had slowly become stronger. She woke from the trance-like state and began to feel like a pair of eyes was nailed to her back. A heat was rising in her body that made her feel uneasy. She had an idea about whom it was who was staring at her, she could feel the direction of the eyes. Slowly she turned around to the right and looked into Draco's icy eyes. He didn't look away when he was caught, instead he raised an eyebrow in a suggestive and flirting manner with a smirk struggling to get free. Shira quickly turned back around and hoped he didn't see her blush. She felt that he didn't stop staring, and she couldn't help but wonder what the hell that was so interesting about her back.

She tried to focus on Flitwick again, but found it very hard as the feeling of Draco's eyes on her didn't go away. She felt like she had to get away, because it felt like he was trying to see right through her, like he was trying to see what was happening deep inside of her. Suddenly the idea of trying to get with him seemed out of the question.

"Miss Lind?" A voice reached through to her consciousness at same time as an elbow hit her left side.

She forced her attention back to professor Flitwick and tried to keep a straight face, even thought she was sure her face was deep red. "What?" she asked rudely. He coughed discreetly. "What, professor?" Shira repeated in a sugary voice.

"What is the main thing that happens when you summon an occupied coffin?" Flitwick repeated the question he obviously had tried to ask before.

Shira stretched her brain to try and remember something from the little she had read in the book and heard in class. Behind her she could hear Draco snigger. "Sorry professor, but I don't know."

"Don't loose your touch in this class, Miss Lind, you can't afford it."

"Professor, no, professor. Sorry professor."

He continued with asking a few other students out, and of course Granger had the answer to the question Shira was asked. With a glare in Granger's direction, Shira turned around to Draco once more and glared at him too. He just sat there with that same look on his face, smirk now wide and large. Like it had been his intention to make her bewildered and flushed.

---

Saturday Shira woke from the tripping of feet in the seventh year girls' dorm. She carefully opened one eye to check the time, but the clock was on the other side of the bed. She groaned and closed her eyes to sleep again, but apparently someone had heard her and came ripping the drapes around her bed away.

"Wakey wakey!" someone said and sounded annoyingly awake. "Quidditch match today!"

Shira squeezed her eyes shut and took a better hold of her blanket. "No, Mari. Sleep," she mumbled into the mattress.

"Come on, Sweets." Marieileen bounced down on the bed and made Shira groan again. "Slytherin's playing, against Gryffindor."

"It's not until after lunch. Just tell me how bad we beat them at dinner. I'm sleeping." She waved an arm behind her to try and push Marieileen away, but seeing as she was still covered in her blanket and had her face buried into the bed, she looked pretty stupid.

Suddenly the cover disappeared and cold air hit Shira's body. She sat up, in just her panties and arms over her chest, and saw Pansy holding the warm, sweet, wonderful cover. Shira looked at it longingly and pouted. "It's already lunch. And don't you want to come and support Draco and Vincent?" Pansy asked ever so sweetly.

"Fine! Just throw me my t-shirt and I'll get ready."

A t-shirt came flying, Marieileen had jumped up at once and found the t-shirt at the foot-end of the bed. Shira put it on and came through the drapes. "You guys go a head," she told her two best friends. "I'll meet you down in the Great Hall when I'm done."

The two girls left and Shira stumbled out of bed and went to the bathroom. She brushed her hair, quickly brushed her teeth and put on some light make-up. In her trunk she found and put on the first and best set of clothes. She expected it to be freezing so she grabbed her cloak and headed for Great Hall.

But no further than down in the common room she stopped, seeing Draco sitting on one of the couches in his Quidditch outfit and a shining Nimbus 2001 in his hands. He heard Shira coming and looked up at her like he was expecting her. "Why are you sitting here all alone?" she asked, sat down next to him and added jokingly: "You're not too nervous to play on your older days?"

"Haha," he answered dryly. "Actually, I uh, was waiting for you." He suddenly looked thoughtful, but that was quickly replaced by his normal straight face.

"Uh, why?"

"Marieileen and Pansy said you'd come down later, so I just thought I'd keep you company."

"Um, okay. Thanks, I guess..."

"Shall we go?" He stood up and leaned the bottom of his broom on his shoulder.

"Sure," Shira nodded and Draco went to hold open the door for her. Slightly frowning she went through and wondered what in the world he was up to. As he made it next to her she quickly glanced at him. He had this look of smugness on his face, like he was up to something.

To break the silence that surrounded them walking through the halls, Shira asked: "How hard do you think we'll beat Gryffindor today?"

It was like a small light lit up in Draco's eyes. "Very hard. Urquhart has spied on a couple of their workouts, they're not the same without Pothead. The Weasley-girl's a sorry excuse for a seeker, Weaslebe don't know the difference between a quaffle and his own head. The two most important players on a Quidditch team, and they don't know how to do their job. Beating them will be easier than ever." Then he changed the subject casually: "Gotten any more letters lately?"

"What?" She stopped abruptly, they were in the middle of the stairs leading up to the Entrance Hall.

Draco stopped a couple of steps above her and turned to look down at her. "Gotten. Any. More. Letters. Lately?" he repeated slowly as if she was a small deaf child.

"I heard you the first time," she snapped. "No, I haven't. Why?"

"Nothing, you just seemed so upset last time." He was leaning casually against the wall in the stairs.

Shira narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why do you care?"

"I don't. Not that much, anyway. I was just wondering."

"_Wondering_? Oh, you are so full of tact, Malfoy," she said ironically. When he just carelessly raised an eyebrow, she groaned and walked up past him without waiting for him to follow.

"What's wrong with that?" he shouted angrily and hurried after her. "I'm being nice and you get all snappy." He caught up with her and stopped her by stepping in front of her, his broom now in a loose grip, very unlike him.

"Well excuse me then! I can't see that it's any of your business if I get letters from home or not!"

"It's not, but..." He didn't have anything to say to that, or, it seemed like he didn't want to say anything about it. Much calmer he asked: "Why did the letter make you upset?" He hadn't forgotten the look she had when she stormed out of the Great Hall with a letter in her hands.

"Letters," she automatically corrected him. "But I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you sure?"

Shira couldn't believe her ears. The tone in his voice so full of concern, she had never heard him talk like that and letting so much concern shine through before. She knew he cared about her as a friend, but he had never tried so hard to show that he did. And she couldn't say she recognized any friend-to-friend "friendliness" about the way he was acting at the moment. Come to think of it, the couple of weeks had been full of weird situations, the episode in Charms-class had just been the beginning. Several times Shira had had the feeling that someone was staring at her, and almost every time she checked Draco was looking at her with a smirk. Sometimes he sort of just bumped into her or came near her. It was all driving Shira crazy.

"You just worry about winning the bloody game today. And I'll worry about whatever there is to worry about in my letters. Okay?" Without waiting for an answer she crossed the Entrance Hall and went inside the Great Hall.

"Took you long enough," Marieileen said when Shira sat down and reached for a bread roll.

"I, uh, had to deal with something." She took one bite of the roll, but decided she had lost her appetite talking with Draco and dropped it down on her plate.

"Where's Draco?" Pansy asked. "Didn't he wait for you?"

"Yeah, I don't know. I left him in the Hall."

"Something wrong?" Marieileen asked seeing Shira's unusual dark mood.

She shook her head and turned her head noticing Draco finally coming in and sitting down with the rest of the Slytherin team. He met her eyes for a second, and it made her stomach churn, in a good way of course. For the millionth time she thought what the hell is going on, she felt like she had lost control over something.

"Ready to go support?" Marieileen stood up and wrapped her green and grey striped scarf around her neck.

"Of course," Pansy said and downed the last of her pumpkin juice. Shira just nodded and grabbed the bread roll again. She would probably get hungry again very soon.

Outside it was as expected, freezing. The sky looked like rain was coming, and the wind was slowly getting stronger. It was colder up in the tower, and sitting on the lowest bench up there was extremely cold and windy. But they had to get a good view.

Shira wasn't a huge fan of Quidditch, like Marieileen was. But she enjoyed watching a good game, and of course, every game Slytherin played was a good one. Growing up around Marcus had made her like the sport, he had explained everything he knew. Most of the time Shira shut her ears, because he had a tendency to get a little carried away, but some of it had stuck with her.

The towers filled up with students and teachers, everyone with warm cloaks and scarves and hats. They were cheering already and Shira felt her mood lighten. The Gryffindors were extreme, they wore hats with roaring lions, they had banners with "Gryffindor" on them in flashing letters, and something that made a terrible noise in their hands. Shira recognised them as something Muggles used when they cheered or celebrated something, it was a handle and a rectangular thing swinging around on the top making noise. These the Gryffindors were using had obviously been enchanted so red and gold smoke came out of them too.

"Bigheads," Shira mumbled angrily wished she could curse them all without getting expelled. Instead she joined Pansy and Marieileen and the entire House of Slytherin in trying to cheer louder than everyone else just as the teams came flying into the pitch.

Urquhart, chaser and captain, lead the Slytherins in a green V. Keeper Miles Bletchley, chaser Vaisey and beater Vincent Crabbe was the one side of the V. Chaser Adrian Pucey, beater Bole and seeker Draco Malfoy the other side. And of course the Gryffindors did their flying show off.

Down on the ground stood Madam Hooch with the whistle in her mouth and her foot on the chest that held the bludger, the quaffle and the snitch. The teams got in positions, Hooch kicked the lock on the chest and blew her whistle. The game was on.

An hour later, Draco caught the snitch. Slytherin had won with 420 to 40. They landed on the ground to congratulate each other and the Slytherin house ran down to join them. Marieileen and Shira squeezed Pansy between each other in a hug and jumped up and down. This was after all the first time they had beaten Gryffindor so hard.

Through the crowd Draco came towards them, still with the snitch in his hands. "I won the _bloody game_," he said to Shira and mimicked her voice in the last part. Then he threw the snitch towards her, she caught it easily still a part of the Pansy-sandwich, and Draco walked away with a smirk.

"What was that about?" Pansy asked muffled trying to break free.

"We sort of had a discussion when he walked me to the Great Hall," Shira answered and they let go of each other. "Exactly what he was trying to prove with this snitch, I have no idea." She looked at the snitch, turning it around in her hands, like she was trying to figure out if the markings on hid the answer in some foreign language.

"Well, that's not something new, you two have had the tendency to fight about the smallest things," Marieileen said. "Let's get inside before we blow away. Can't have any of that when we'll probably be celebrating the victory down in the common room after dinner as always."

And, oh, what a celebration that would be... Shira would not forget it.


	5. I'm Sorry I Hurt You

Slytherin common room was very full. Every student of that house remotely interested in Quidditch was joining in on the celebration. And all of them were convinced that Slytherin would finally get back on top at Hogwarts this year. Beginning with the Quidditch Cup, finishing with the House Cup. Shira found it a little unbelievable that the absence of _one_ student was the reason they got back on top. It was unbelievable that that _one_ student had managed to make it impossible for Slytherin to achieve anything great for six years. So right now, she didn't care what Potthead was doing, she didn't care if he went straight into where The Dark Lord was hiding and killed him. This day she just enjoyed celebrating the first of many Quidditch victories with her friends and her house.

The best from The Weird Sisters were playing from an unknown source, some people were up dancing to it, some were off into the dark corners of the room doing whatever and some were just sitting and talking and laughing and having fun. Shira was one of the latter. She had been dancing and jumping around and drinking hoping she could get drunk enough to pluck up the courage to seduce Draco into bed, but she had been a little to energetic and was reduced to sitting, talking nonsense and drinking with Theodore and Marieileen. Or rather talking with Marieileen and struggling with Theodore. He was extremely drunk and tried to make Shira change her mind about hooking up around graduation, he'd rather do it right away.

"Come 'n, Lind," Theodore slurred. "Fo' the sake o' Kweedditsh. I won!"

"No, Theo. And you're not even on the team."

He tried to fill up Shira's already full glass with more Fire Whiskey, but most of it landed on the table in stead of in the glass. She had carried around a glass with the fiery liquid all evening, but slowed considerably down the drinking when she realised Theodore was trying to get her so drunk she would sleep with him. All hopes of getting Draco in bed went flying out the window.

"Would'u do it-if I was on team?"

"N-"

"Urquhart, I wanna on ya team!" Theodore stood up, a little too fast, fell down and got up again and staggered over to Urquhart.

The two girls giggled at his mistake. "Why's he so interested in getting you into bed again all of a sudden?"

"I asked if he and I could hook up if either of us couldn't get anyone at the end of the year. And I guess I'm so good in bed, he got desperate when he realised he had a small, tiny chance again."

"Well, that wasn't smart." Marieileen squinted her eyes at something on a far away wall. "When did that gargoyle get here?"

"That's not a gargoyle, silly. That's Vincent."

Both of them giggled and raised their glasses. "Oooo, I love that song," they said in unison and began singing, not so very pretty.

"Running like a hairy troll, learning to rock and roll. Spinning round like a crazy elf, dancing by himself. Boogie down like a unicorn, and no stopping till the break of dawn. Put your hands up in the air, like an ogre just don't care."

With a firm grip around each other's shoulders they swung from side to side in the sofa. "Can you dance like a hippogriff? Na na na na na na na na na!! Flying off from a cliff! Na na na na na na na na na!! Swooping down to the ground! Na na na na na na na na na!! Wheel around and around and around, na na na na na na na na naaaaAAAAAAAA!!"

Totally out of breath they fell into giggles again. "You suck at singing, Sweets."

"Thanks, Mari. I learned from the worst."

Just then Theodore came thumping back and fell hard into the seat next to Shira. She sighed and felt the good feeling of the song blow away. "Goodness, he's back..."

"I wan' you, Shira," the drunk boy said, then added sadly: "I didn make team." He inched closer and the smell of alcohol became almost unbearable.

She tried to push Theodore away. "Merlin, you stink!"

"_I sting of luuuv_," he sang and laid down over Shira's lap. There he fell into something between sleep and drunken coma, while holding his arms around her waist and lap like she was a pillow.

Shira's hands tried hard to find somewhere to rest except for on Theodore. She didn't want to risk him thinking in his conscious unconsciousness that she came on to him just by resting her hands on his back. Finally they landed on top of the couch's back. A little uncomfortable seeing as it was a little too high, but anywhere else than on Theodore.

"Could you hand me the glass?" she asked Marieileen.

The now again full glass, thanks to Theodore, was handed over and Shira emptied it in two seconds. She shuddered from the burning sensation rippling down her stomach and handed it over to her friend so she could fill it up again.

"Careful now, don't get so low you'll screw our extremely intoxicated horny friend," Marieileen said harshly, but refilled the glass.

"At least I have someone who wants me," Shira said.

"You have a father who makes you take desperate choices."

"I have a father who cares."

Marieileen and Shira was the best of friends with disagreements and everything best friends shared, when sober. But put them under the influence and they got rude and moody and often spoke without thinking. One minute laughing and joking and being extremely childish, the next in a huge fight. They had been thrown out of a fair amount of parties because they got into a fight with each other.

"Seems to me like he has lost his touch as a father."

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FATHER LIKE THAT!" Shira snapped.

They never fought about anything worth fighting about and they always exaggerated.

---

At the other end of the room Draco watched Shira as she struggled to get Theodore away from her and her glass. He couldn't hear anything, but could only imagine the cheesy phrases Theodore was pouring out. Shira laughed. Was she getting back together with Theodore again? No, she wouldn't push him away and ignore him like that if they were. But then again, there had been this thing once, graduation had come up in a weird way and Shira had tried to change the subject. Draco didn't care about what that was all about then, but now he didn't like it for some reason.

Theodore got up suddenly, with some difficulties of course. Draco paid attention to where he tried to walk, he stopped at Urquhart and they began discussing. That wasn't interesting, Draco turned to Shira again. Not that anything more interesting happened there, but it certainly looked better. "Do The Hippogriff" blasted through the room and Shira and Marieileen sang happily with a lot of feeling together. A small smile reached Draco's lips when he heard their horrible singing voices. He really liked the song himself and remembered the first time he heard it, at the Yule Ball in his fourth year. That had been a good year, Potter in trouble, Yule Ball, The Dark Lord rising...

The girls fell into giggles after a long end to the first chorus, and then Theodore came back. Shira face went from happy to frustrated. Theodore said something and Shira pushed him away only to make him lie down on her lap. Draco noticed that he felt jealousy, and seeing the bastard lying there made an intense anger rise in him. He saw how his arms rested around her waist, his head in her probably soft lap and Draco wanted to march right over and Crucio Theodore senseless. Until he noticed that Shira and Marieileen were starting a fight again.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY FATHER LIKE THAT!" Shira yelled and both of them stood up, Theodore fell hard to the floor, groaned, but passed out again.

Everyone in the common room stopped whatever they were doing, except for a few couples in the corners. The music stopped. Pansy walked closer, but decided to watch instead of interfere. Draco rushed over to stop them and everyone paid closer attention.

"YOU'RE THE ONE WHO _ALWAYS_ COMPLAINS ABOUT HIM!"

"THAT DOESN'T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT –"

"I'LL TAKE WHATEVER RIGHT I WANT! Miss-Poor-Moody-Me-I-Need-A-Boyfriend-Before-My-Father-Kills-Me!" Marieileen said the last part lower through gritted teeth, but everyone heard it.

Shira gasped. "YOU DID NOT JUST SAY THAT, BITCH!" she yelled and lunged out to slap Marieileen, but her hand never made it to her friends face as she felt her nails scratch something soft. Draco had tried to get in between them, but neither of them had seen him and now Shira had given his arm a nice good set of scratches. The three of them froze. Marieileen with squinted eyes waiting for the blow that never came and Shira with her hand in mid-air, eyes shifting from Draco's arm to his face and to his arm again. And Draco himself looked wide-eyed at the three gashes on his exposed underarm, blood slowly began to trickle from them.

Marieileen realised something was happening and opened her eyes again. Her jaw fell taking in the scene and her face lost all colour seeing the blood on Draco's arm, she hated blood and backed away in fear like the blood was attacking her. With growing fear, Shira saw Draco's face change from shock to fury. He looked up into her eyes and she saw the anger, her heart beating fast in fear. She knew all about his temper and what could happen if he lost control, something it seemed like he was doing now.

These very few seconds, from the moment Shira screamed the last words until she met Draco's eyes, seemed like an eternity, it was like everything had happened in slow-motion. Suddenly it fast-forwarded, Draco's unhurt arm grabbed Shira and dragged her out of the common room. He kicked open the stone door, jumped through with her hanging after, spun her around and kicked the door shut. The music started playing again and it sounded like people went back to their own business.

Draco let go of Shira's arm and she took several steps backwards. Her breath quickened when Draco took slow steps towards her, anger still burning in his eyes. It looked like he wanted to hit her.

"I-I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry, _so sorry_, Draco! I didn't mean to, I was supposed to– I mean– Oh Merlin, I'll never drink again. I'm so sorry... Draco..." Saying his name quietly, pressing out all her fear and regret and maybe some warmer feelings at once.

Some of the anger left his eyes when he heard her stumble out excuses and explanations like that, especially the way she said his name, the for him disturbing gut-feeling came back.

"Don't worry about it," he said quickly and rolled down the sleeve, only to smear out the blood and stain his shirt. "What were you and Marieileen fighting about?"

"Nothing," Shira answered quickly. "You got to get to the Hospital Wing, come on, I'll go with you." She signalled for him to follow her. In silence they walked next to each other the long way up to Madam Pomfrey to heal Draco's wounds. It was very clear that Draco wasn't satisfied with getting a "nothing" to his question. But at the moment he didn't push it. Shira wanted to take care of him, so he let her.

Madam Pomfrey was scurrying around the room tidying up, there were no patients there at the moment. The door closed behind them and Madam Pomfrey turned startled around.

"Uhm, there has been a little accident," Draco said and held out his arm. Three stripes of blood were now visible through his shirt.

"Oh my, what happened here?" The elderly witch hurried over and carefully pulled the shirt up. Draco winced as the fabric had had the time to dry into the wounds.

"I sort of scratched him, by accident," Shira said.

"We'll sit you down on the bed right here, and I'll disinfect and heal it right away." She escorted Draco over to the nearest bed and went to find the supplies.

Shira walked over and sat down on a chair next to the bed. She looked at the gashes and then at her nails. They were a little bloody. "I'm sorry."

"Stop saying that. You didn't mean to, I know."

"But you got so mad."

"Just a natural reaction."

Madam Pomfrey came back and started cleaning up the blood and wounds. Draco winced again as the disinfection-potion reacted with his skin, but gritted his teeth and let no emotion show. When it was all clean and as pretty as possible, Madam Pomfrey reached for her wand, pointed it at the flesh and muttered a spell. It closed and left a very faint scar.

"That's that, you're free to go," she said and tidied up again. Just as they reached the door, she called out to them: "And no more alcohol tonight."

Draco and Shira looked at each other surprised and then turned to Madam Pomfrey, both had sobered up quickly after the accident and had forgotten they still smelled.

"Don't worry, I won't say anything to anyone. I just believe you have had enough for tonight."

They nodded and left.

"You're not mad at me?" Shira asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs in the dungeons.

"A little bit," Draco answered shortly. "But it will help if you answer my question from earlier." He smirked.

Shira sighed. Sodding prick, she thought. Can't he get it into his thick blonde head that I don't want to talk about it! Because he's surely recognized the link between this and the letters he was so damn curious about.

"Please."

They had reached the entrance to the common room, music and laughter was still heard vaguely from inside. "I don't think I want to go in just yet," she said.

"That's okay, we'll sit out here, and you can tell me what you were fighting about." Draco sat down in lotus-position in good distance from the entrance, just in case someone would burst out and knock the door in his head. He didn't need a bump on his head right now.

Shira sat down by the opposite wall with her legs pulled up and arms tightly around them. "Why do you want to know so badly anyway?" she asked.

"Why are you trying so hard to hide it?"

Point taken.

"I heard that it had something to do with her being rude about your father, but I know it was more behind it than that. What did she mean by "Miss-Poor-Moody-Me-Bla-Bla-Father-Kills-Me"?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

Draco was clearly getting frustrated with her. He decided to try a different approach. "Fine. I don't want to know anymore."

For many minutes they sat there, occasionally looking at the other, glaring when caught. Shira was finally calming down and straightened her legs, they were cramping. Did she have a good reason for not letting Draco or anyone else know about the boyfriend versus father-subject? No. Would there ever be a good reason for not letting someone know about a thing like that? No. Wouldn't it be easier if she told all her friends? Yes.

She did not have any idea how many times she had sighed this day. But once again a deep one slipped over her lips. Draco looked up and realised she was about to spill.

"Couple of days before school started, father had me in for a talk. He was pushing me into finding a boyfriend, or better yet, husband. He had this idea that I would be safer with a husband looking after me in this magical bloody war. Of course I was furious, because I don't want an arranged fucking marriage and was promised to at least try and find a guy on my own, but of course you know all about that. He suggested a gathering to introduce me to a few _handsome young men_," she mimicked her father's deep voice.

"I wasn't invited to a gathering at your place," he stated.

"Because it never happened. Not that you are a sure invite at every hook-up-gathering."

"But I am," he said cockily and smirked.

Shira smiled and continued. "Well, he sent me a letter just to ask how it was going with finding that bloody boyfriend. I was furious again and hated him for interfering. And there is your answer to what was making me upset about the letters."

Draco didn't respond to that, but just nodded.

"I didn't answer his first letter, he was mad, threatened to punish me if I was rude and not answered again, and I sent an answer in the "I'm-The-Perfect-Daughter-In-Regret"-style and haven't heard anything since."

"Oh," was the reply.

"I think it's about time I write mother to update her..." Shira thought out loud.

After another few minutes of awkward silence, Draco asked casually: "So, how are you doing in your search for that perfect protective husband-to-be?"

Shira met his blue gaze. "No comment."

"Oh come on!"

"No comment."

"You are so bloody stubborn, you know that?" he said with a playful sparkle in his eyes.

"Why thank you, and I do know that. It's one of my many lovely traits."

Suddenly she started giggling. Draco looked questioningly at her.

"I just remembered Theo. I dropped him on the floor, wonder if he's all right..."

"You want to go in and check on him?" he asked with a hint of bitterness.

"No, don't want to see him before he's sober."

"So, are you two getting back together then?"

"What makes you think that?"

"You looked so cosy in there." That was a lie, Draco knew Theodore was just drunk and horny and Shira was not playing along with him.

"Did it honestly look like that?" she asked shocked.

"A little maybe..."

"Ugh, I hate him when he's drunk. That was one of the reasons we broke up, and one of the reasons I would never go back to him."

"Good," Draco said quietly. Shira raised an eyebrow and Draco did the same.

For about another hour they talked about so-called normal stuff, Quidditch, Marcus as captain and school. They never really had had the chance to sit and talk, alone. There had almost always been someone else around, and if they were alone it was only for a few minutes or in Transfiguration class since fifth year. But McGonagall wasn't exactly inspiring enough for conversations. Not even Tonks were "inspirational" like that. She looked fun, but was a strict teacher. Strict, calm and crazy. This was one of the things the two students talked about sitting out in the corridor, waiting for the party to slow down.

They didn't notice that it was a lot quieter in the common room before it apparently had been silent for a short while.

"Guess they're done celebrating then," Draco commented.

"It's getting pretty late," Shira added, it was couple of hours past midnight. "I think I'm going to hit the sack. Try to wake up early tomorrow and get some homework done and enjoy the rest of the day."

"Good idea." Draco stood up and held out a hand to help Shira up. She grabbed it and as easily as picking a straw he pulled her to her feet.

Inside everything was spotless. Not one little sign giving away that there had been quite a party, except for Theodore still lying on the floor where he had landed when Shira dropped him. He had turned around though, lying on his back causing him to snore very loud.

"I'll levitate him up," Draco said laughing a little. "Goodnight, Lind."

"Goodnight, Malfoy."

Up in her dormitory, Shira went to the bathroom to get ready for bed and most importantly; brush her teeth to get rid of the old disgusting taste and smell of alcohol. After all that was done, she walked over to her bed and was about to undress when a huge smile erupted on her face. She giggled to herself, before undressing and lying down behind closed drapes, falling asleep right away.

In the boys' dormitory Draco dropped Theodore onto his bed. While Draco magically carried him upstairs he checked to see just how deep his sleep was by bumping his head in the ceiling and shoulders into the wall. But Theodore slept like a corpse and snored like a troll. So Draco carelessly dropped him on his bed and hopped into his own. For a while he laid thinking about the evening. He could not remember one party where he had participated this little. But he had been completely lost today, and didn't even miss it sitting in the cold hall talking with Shira.

His thoughts began spinning and he quickly undressed, waved his wand to close the drapes, and fell into a peaceful sleep.


	6. Things Are Heating Up

Around noon Sunday morning, the seventh year girl dormitories slowly began stirring. Some groaning and moaning and some yawning and stumbling out of bed. As far as Shira knew, every girl in her dorm attended the celebration party last night. This could be fun, Shira herself felt quite well, the usual hangover was oddly absent. She put on the t-shirt that always laid next to her bed and peeped through the drapes. The first thing she saw was Millicent leaning against the bathroom door looking pretty pale. Millicent was never able to know her own limits, the poor girl. At the other end of the room, Shira heard a familiar moan and went to the other side of her bed peeping through. Marieileen was obviously waking up.

"Hey, Marieileen," Shira said.

Marieileen slowly turned to her friend. "Huh?" Her voice creaked.

"Fit for fight?" Shira asked playfully, but only got a deathly glare in return. "What exactly did you do last night after I left?"

Marieileen wrinkled her forehead trying to remember. It looked painful. "Ugh, I drank my pants off. Literally."

"What?"

"After you left, I downed just a little too much fire whiskey and mooned the room."

Shira fell into a laughing fit. "You... mooned... Oh Merlin, I wish I was there..."

"Oh, and I made out with Blaise after that."

"What you say?"

"I made out with Blaise after that." Marieileen smiled at the memory. "I made out with Blaise."

Shira's eyes almost popped out of her head, she completely opened the drapes around her bed and sat more comfortably. "Excuse me, have I been missing out on something?"

Just then a retching sound came from the bathroom, both girls looked disgusted in that direction. Outside the door stood Pansy with her arms held up in a defensive position and her eyes forced shut, nose wings vibrated and her mouth shut tight. Millicent was gone.

"What's the matter, Pansy?" Shira asked amused.

"Millicent's sick. And she touched me," Pansy answered through gritted teeth with a strangled voice.

Sitting on her trunk putting on socks Daphne laughed. "You afraid of germs?"

Pansy nodded frantically and walked over to her bed, face twitching every time any kind of sound came from the bathroom. "Someone has got to kick that girl hard in her ass next time she so much as thinks of anything stronger than water." She sat down stiffly and looked very uncomfortable.

The three other girls sniggered. Somehow they always found great amusement in seeing Pansy uneasy. Just then Millicent came stumbling out. She didn't look as pale, but her eyes were glazed.

Daphne, who was perfectly well, pulled out a vial from her trunk and gave it to Millicent. "I think this is exactly what you need," she said. It was an anti-hangover-potion. Daphne always had a vial or two at hand whenever needed.

"Thanks," Millicent said and gulped down half the vial. "I can't believe I actually slept through the night without anything happening."

"I just wish you could have waited until the rest of us had left," Pansy said breathing calmly again.

"It's nothing she could control now was it?" Shira said and ran to the bathroom before anyone else realised it was available.

"Bitch!" she heard Marieileen call out for her.

"Love you too, sweetie!" Shira called back before she stripped down and turned on the shower.

---

It wasn't time for dinner just yet, so the girls sat in their beds talking. Millicent was considerably better now.

"You asked what happened to me last night," Marieileen stated lying on top of the blanket in her bed and staring up into the roof of drapes. "Now, I'm asking you, what happened with you? I vaguely remember Draco pulling you out of there..."

"I went with him to the Hospital Wing and then we sat outside the common room and talked for three hours or something."

"Hospital Wing?" Millicent gasped. "What happened?"

"You didn't catch it?" Shira was shocked. She was sure everyone had caught the show.

"Uh, I don't exactly remember that much of yesterday." She blushed a little.

"Shira and I fought," Marieileen said.

"And I scratched Draco's arm," Shira added.

"Oh." That was all the explanation needed. A lot could happen when Marieileen and Shira fought like that. Once they jinxed some fruit to get thrown around the room, too lazy to actually have a food-fight themselves. It resulted in a month of detention where they had to fix the broken paintings and lamps the Muggle way. The worst punishment had to have been the angry paintings never keeping quiet.

"But did anything exciting happen?" Marieileen wanted to know.

"Nothing," Shira replied, a trace of disappointment in her voice, but no one seemed to notice.

"How did it go in the Hospital Wing?" Pansy asked.

"Good, he's all healed, just three scars left."

"What I want to know is what's going on between you and Blaise." Shira said to change the subject and turned smirking towards Marieileen.

"Oh yeah," Daphne agreed. "I was so unlucky as to walk in on them eating off each other under the stairs."

"There's nothing going on! We were just drunk..."

Everyone gave her "yeah right"-looks.

"It looked like something to me," Daphne said and made a face similar to the one Pansy wore when Millicent were gagging her stomach out earlier. "What I remember seeing before storming off trying to obliviate myself was your shirt halfway off, your hands down his pants and both moaning and grinding like there was no tomorrow."

Marieileen blushed deeply, not something she did too often. "I won't complain if it happens again. And again. And maybe again. But that's it."

"Yeah well, we'll see about that," Shira said with better knowledge. "You always say it's nothing. I think Bletchley and Warrington, to mention a couple, will speak for themselves."

"Let's go eat," Marieileen rushed towards the door, this was getting too scary.

Shira laughed at her and the five girls headed down to the first meal of the day together. It was kind of a lunch-dinner, as the clock had struck 2 in the afternoon before any of them was ready.

Up in the Great Hall the boys were already up digging into dinner, the house-elves had made steak and ribs and gravy and delicious unhealthy food, perfect for hangovers. Theodore was the only one not eating, he looked like an Ashwinder with the flu. His head was practically hanging from one of his hands, the other hand hanging lazily under the table, and his entire posture was of a cut down sick, rotten and dead tree. They sat down in between the boys and conveniently enough Shira happened to sit just opposite of Draco. He smiled shortly to her before everyone was chatting animatedly about yesterday's events.

---

Sundays had become a study-day for the seventh-years. Shira and her friends sat by their usual sitting-group and lost themselves in the hell of homework that had increased drastically every week since the beginning of the term. Shira thought her head was going to explode. There was a Charms essay, Potions essay, two Defence essays and a Transfigurations essay. The Thestral-project in Care of Magical Creatures had finally come to an end, so a report was to be written there. And of course preparations for new subjects in almost every class.

Shira was halfway through the Transfigurations essay when she got stuck. She flipped frantically through every possible page in the textbook, but nothing gave her the answer. "Bloody hell," she cursed under breath. "Hey, Draco?"

He looked up from his book. "What?" He sounded irritated.

Shira hesitated. What's wrong with him? "Do you know why it is impossible to undo the transfiguration of a zebra into horse, and not horse into zebra?"

"No idea, not there yet." He resumed his work.

Shira rubbed her temples trying to figure it out. No luck. "I got to go to the library. Anyone need anything?"

No one answered.

"Fine." She left abruptly, not noticing Draco's eyes following her through the room and out of sight.

---

Draco couldn't concentrate on his homework at all. He wanted to throw the books out the window. Bloody stupid essays. Essays here and essays there. He would turn into an essay if he wrote another one.

Draco thought about what had happened when he woke up that morning, way too early in his opinion. When he opened his eyes and became aware of the world around him, he noticed he had his hand on the three scars Shira had given him. A tug in his heart made him let go of his arm like it had been burned. He had gone right into the showers and stood under ice cold water for a half hour not daring to think. He felt that if he did, he wouldn't like what he thought, or maybe felt.

Something about Draco had changed at the end of last school year. Since the night he had stood in front of Dumbledore, ready to kill him, a new range of emotions had found its way through Draco. It was as though a door had opened inside him, he knew it sounded cliché, but it was the only thing he could compare it to. There was some things he saw in a different light, some things he felt differently about. He had tried his best to not think about the change and what it could mean for him. Draco wasn't too keen on change. That's why he hadn't dared to think this morning, he was afraid that his thoughts or feelings could be a part of something that would change him, make him not the usual cocky and strong Draco Malfoy anymore.

Back in the present, he looked around at his friends and saw that Theodore sat next to Shira, a little too close. Draco's eyes narrowed. She said that nothing was going on between them. Then why were they sitting so close? Why was that bothering him? I am never jealous. I don't need to be jealous. I always get what I want, who I want, when I want. Nott isn't someone to be jealous of. He's the one supposed to be jealous of me. Then why do I feel it?

For once in his life Draco was slowly loosing control of his feelings. And loosing control of feelings he never felt before was maddening. Draco Malfoy needed control. He had always had himself under control, and now he didn't.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck, he thought to himself and tried to hard to focus again.

Then Shira disturbed him again by asking something about damn Transfiguration. He answered angrily back, and regretted it at once. But she left. Draco looked at her leaving and another feeling rushed through his body. This one he recognized and liked. The way her hips swung gently from side to side, the way her hair bounced, Draco found himself getting slightly excited. Too bad she was gone so quickly. But she definitely needed to walk more often when she was irritated...

---

The rest of the Sunday went away uneventful. Except for the tension between Blaise and Marieileen. It was great entertainment seeing them in this awkward situation, almost not daring to look in the others direction and ironically enough they both reached for something at the table at the same time every time they needed something. Shira and Pansy shared looks and both knew they couldn't wait to ask what the hell was going on. Because it was not like Marieileen had said, there was definitely something there. How long it had been there was for the two lovebirds to know, but for the six and a half years the three girls had known each other, not once had Marieileen been awkward around a guy she had fooled around with. No matter who it was.

Marieileen came out from the bathroom as the last to go to bed. She stopped with the door half closed behind her when she saw Shira and Pansy sitting on Shira's bed and Millicent and Daphne on Daphne's bed looking at her. All with huge grins.

"Come sit down, sweetie," Shira said motioning for Marieileen's bed.

"As your best friends and room mates, we demand to know everything," Pansy said.

"Know what?" Marieileen asked very much suspicious.

"Do you promise to sit down, answer in detail to everything we ask?" Shira asked sternly.

Marieileen sighed like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. "Like I have a choice. Okay."

"Okay?" Shira wasn't satisfied.

"Yes, I promise to sit and answer all of your questions as truthful and detailed as possible." With that she sat down waiting for doom.

"When did you first realise that you had feelings for Mr. Zabini?" Pansy asked like she was questioning a Death Eater in the Wizengamot, ironically, she would probably have been the Death Eater under oath.

"Two and half months ago."

The four girls looked stunned, but quickly regained themselves.

"How did you find out?" Daphne asked in the same way as Pansy.

"We bumped into each other in Diagon Alley, in Quality Quidditch Supplies. We hung out and I got bored so I started flirting with him, just to see how he would react. And I think he had been a little dry that summer."

"You – you – didn't?" Shira stuttered.

"No no no, Merlin." Marieileen waved her hands around. "What do you take me for?"

"An occasional slut."

"Look who's talking!"

"Hey! Two guys, two poorly qualified _boys_! You've had at least five, that _I, your best friend_, know of."

"Bitch."

"So you didn't do anything?" Millicent asked.

"Oh, we did something," Marieileen smirked. "We just didn't go that far. But he is the best kisser in the whole damn world."

"Ooooo," came from the girls in unison.

"Well, elaborate about the progression from the day in Diagon Alley and up until the celebration of Slytherin's Quidditch victory," Shira demanded.

"It's not really that much. We didn't see each other anymore, before school. So that was boring. But here..." She interrupted herself. "I just can't believe you guys haven't noticed!"

Incoherent mumbles was heard.

Marieileen shook her head. "This tension started building up between us, he gave me looks, I gave him looks. I started developing stronger feelings and I think he did too, because sometimes when our eyes would meet, it was like we both knew what the other was feelings."

"Aaaaw."

"I guess we just couldn't control ourselves any longer last night."

"Sure didn't look like there was any control from what I saw," Daphne said.

"So, isn't this the first coupling in Slytherin this year?" Pansy asked thinking back.

"Yeah," Millicent answered slowly. "I think it is. Not even our own Malfoy has gone fishing yet."

"We haven't even discussed the issue of _us_ yet," Marieileen proclaimed. "So please hold your horses, it might not even turn into anything."

"Uh huh," everyone answered and Pansy and Millicent got back to their own beds.

"Don't take that tone with me!"

The four others crawled under their covers and closed the drapes.

"Don't do that!"

Shira pretended to snore like a troll.

"Come on guys, don't take it for something it's not! At least yet."

No one answered the poor girl, sitting on her bed in her pyjamas, looking lost.

"Oh you stupid bunch of shitty gits. I hope you all die virgins," Marieileen mumbled and crawled under the covers too.

"Too late!" a chorus rang through the dorm.

---

Shira woke up with a strange feeling about the upcoming week. Like this was going to be a weird week. But the bathroom just got available so she grabbed her school uniform and sprinted inside to shower and forgot to dwell more on it.

"Are you done yet, Shira?" Marieileen called from the other side of the door when Shira had gotten dressed.

"Make-up and hair left!" she called back.

"We're going up then!"

"Okay!"

As fast as only Shira could, she put make-up on and magically dried her hair. She grabbed her twelve and a half inch holly and ebony wand and her books for Potions, Defence and stupid Care of Magical Creatures, threw them in her bag and ran through the common room out into the cold dungeon halls and up.

"Goodness, what is this winter coming to," Shira commented when she joined her friends in the Great Hall. "I swear I saw the torches down in the dungeons shiver with cold."

"I just read in the Daily Prophet that this was predicted to be the coldest and snowiest winter in a long time," Pansy said and nodded towards the paper that lay neatly folded next to her plate.

"Anyone been outside yet today?" Shira asked.

"I was about to practice some Quidditch before breakfast, but it felt like it was right above zero outside," Draco answered. "I went straight back in, I didn't want to freeze my dick off."

"Oh goodness," Marieileen said sarcastically. "Whatever would the world come to if Draco Malfoy froze his dick off..."

"Shut it, Storme," Draco snapped. "I could save the world with it, and you know it."

She just snorted.

"Well, can you save me? Because I've got to be outside for a double Magical Creatures-class..." Shira said.

Draco smirked like that time he saw his name on the Quidditch team-list second year. "I think I can manage to do you if I get a seat far back in Astronomy-class. I don't really need to do the preparations for tonight's stargazing."

"You really hate that class, don't you, Shira?" Theodore asked. "Turning to Draco's dick so you can get away."

"I'm bloody desperate. It's not my fault I need that stupid N.E.W.T. to be head of the Beast Division at the bloody Ministry," Shira said sourly, but really considering taking up on Draco's offer. She knew he would do it, if she wanted to. Except that she didn't like the idea of the Astronomy room, at least not filled with students. The Astronomy tower on the other hand, was everyone's dirty fantasy. Shira was sure 90 percent of the students had done _something_ up there. Even the hardest, toughest person would blush if they knew what had happened up there. The tower was involved in every love story at Hogwarts.

After a lot of eating and complaints about the winter slowly taking over the world, they went to the first class of the new week. Vincent and Gregory went to some easy class that nobody cared about, Pansy and Millicent had some other class and the rest went for Advanced Potions.

Professor Slughorn sat by his desk twirling his long silver moustache while the students found their seats. Draco sat down behind the desk where Marieileen had sat down. He caught Shira's eyes and motioned for her to sit next to him, just as she was about to sit next to Marieileen. With a "what's-up"-look she sat down with him.

Draco just shook his head as in "nothing's up" and began opening his books and folding out parchment. Shira shrugged and decided that this was a nice change and followed suit.

"Today, we're making Mandrake Draught," Slughorn said suddenly and stood up. He tapped the board with his wand and very detailed instructions appeared. "You should copy this down, because you will need it for the next class. You will work as the pairs you are sitting in right now, and I want you to come back and check on your potions every night until it is done, starting tonight. It is important that you keep a close eye on it, so that nothing goes wrong. Madam Pomfrey will have the potions once you're done, because she is out. Get started, and don't be afraid to ask for help." Slughorn sat down again and students began copying the instructions down.

"Guess we'll be working close the next few days then," Draco said to Shira when he had written everything down.

"Guess so," she said back and put the last dot on her parchment.

Draco smirked at her and got up to get the ingredients.

The hour and half went by without any problems. Draco and Shira's potion was looking just like it was supposed to, and they were on schedule, not once asking for help. But occasionally Shira noticed Draco's leg gently touching hers, sending shivers down to her toes and up to her head. Same thing when his elbow touched hers as they laid next to each other on the desk. She noticed how he sometimes looked at her, with a small smirk on his face. It was driving her crazy, he was pushing all her buttons with so little effort. But at the end of the class, Shira thought her mind would say good-bye and kill all reason in her.

She was leaning her head in her hands lost in her own world of circles and colours, slowly stirring the cauldron, one of the last things to do before they could leave. Draco had been writing down the observations they made. But suddenly Shira heard him breathe next to her ear and his breath was warm on her neck. "I saw that you considered the offer I made earlier," he whispered to her.

Her eyes popped as big as Potter's glasses and all her senses were on edge. She stopped stirring and the stick she used stood in danger of melting.

"It's on if you want to."

Shira blinked a few times, and then slowly turned around to face Draco. She knew her face probably was Gryffindor scarlet, but she had to see his face. A sexy smirk lingered on his lips and his eyes had a playful sparkle. Whatever Slytherin qualities she had with being collected and cool and composed, vanished like leaves in the wind. Once again her heart raced like a maniac, she felt her body temperature rise and her breath quickened.

This was exactly what Draco had thought. She is completely lost, he thought. It's about time. Slowly, looking into each other's eyes, Draco felt himself getting pretty lost too. He too felt his temperature boil and his heart beat just a little bit faster. Quickly he mentally shook his head and tore his blue-grey eyes away from Shira's green ones and saw smoke coming from the stick Shira was holding.

With a nonchalant voice he broke her trance like state. "Your stick is burning up."

Shira blinked again and followed his gaze. She gasped and quickly pulled out the stick and wiped it with a piece of parchment. "Fuck fuck fuck. You got another stick I can use?"

"I take that as a yes?" Draco smirked again.

Shira groaned. "Stupid. I need another stick so I can stir the Mandrake Draught in the cauldron before it goes to hell and we both fail the assignment."

"Fine then," Draco grabbed another stick. "Your loss."

She just rolled her eyes and started to stir again, giving away no sign that her body was screaming for him. The potion was fine and Slughorn inspected every cauldron before they were free to leave.

"You've all done very well today! Please move your cauldrons to the table in the back, and remember to label them. Write a report about today's work and come back before curfew tonight to check up on it. Class dismissed!"

"How'd it go with you?" Marieileen asked when they got outside.

"Fine," Shira answered sharply.

Marieileen furrowed her eyes. "Something wrong, sweets?"

"No. Fine."

Right then Draco walked by smirking and disappeared down the hall to the common room.

"Okay." Marieileen wasn't satisfied and wondered about Draco, but had to get to her next class. Shira had a free period, so they went their separate ways. Shira headed for the common room, well aware that Draco was there with a free too.

Down by the fire Draco sat in a two-seated-couch with his feat on the table and the cloak over the couch's back. Without turning around to look at her, he asked: "Want to write that report now?"

Shira sighed, walked over and leaned on the couch. "Yeah, better get it over with."

Draco patted the empty space next to him. Again Shira sighed, but walked around and sat down. She pulled out a piece of parchment and began writing and discussing with Draco. He leaned forward on the table to see what she wrote, and whenever he came with something for her to write, she could feel his breath on her cheek again and hear his deep voice very clearly.

"You think this' enough?" Shira asked looking over the 5 inches they had gotten down.

"Yeah," Draco answered. "It's not like anything exciting happens to it the first day."

"Great, then I'll write my mother." Shira grabbed another piece of parchment and leaned back with a book on her legs as support for the soft parchment.

Draco leaned back too and took a deep breath before closing his eyes and relaxing.

Shira sat for a few minutes biting her quill, thinking of what to write. The fact that she felt Draco's presence right next to her didn't help either. She turned to glance at him a few times, and wondered what was going on in that head of his. Why he acted so flirtatious towards her all of a sudden...

No, flirtatious wasn't the right word. Teasing was more right. The start of the week sure was weird, just as she felt when she woke up.

Shira didn't know what to do with the fact that Draco was acting like this. She kind of chickened out with the idea of trying to get closer to him. All though it seemed like he was trying the same thing with her. Not that she dared to think that thought. It just was there, in her subconsciousness.

Somehow she had managed to scrape together a letter.

_Mother_

_How are things going at home? Father told me he was going away on business. I hope it's not something "serious". I met Marcus in Hogsmeade early in October and I remember him saying something that I'm not going to write here. I hope it's nothing serious? Should we be worried?_

_Things are going well at school, there is a lot of homework, but then this is my N.E.W.T. year. I suppose you want to know how my love life is going too. Father told me to write home to you while he is away. At the moment there's nothing going on, but I am of course working on it. It's not easy knowing that as soon as I start dating a guy, our parents are going to marry us and we'll have to be together forever. But it seems like something is happening, and I hope I can tell you some good news soon!_

_How's Demon? I really miss him, and I think I'm going to bring him back to school after Christmas. Just so you know it..._

_Love Shira_

She read it through and sealed it with her family crest. She stretched her legs and glanced over at Draco, noticing he looked at her. "What?"

"Nothing," he shook his head slightly. "Write anything exciting to your mother?"

"Not really, but I asked her about the stuff Marcus mentioned though. If there was a link between that and the business my father had to go to."

"Hmm, you got to tell me what she says about that."

"I will."

The two of them sat there in silence for a while, just looking into the fire drawing every bit of heat from it as they could, even though the body heat radiating from the both of them was enough. It felt good just sitting there, neither of them felt the need to say anything.

Then Shira broke the silence. "Have you noticed what's happening between Blaise and Marieileen?"

"Yeah, and it was about time something happened."

"You've seen it?"

"I've got an extra sense for sexual tension," he said and looked at her in a knowing way that told Shira straight forward that he knew she wanted him.

Draco put his hands on both sides of Shira, one on the back of the black leather couch and one on her leg. It was like electricity went through his hand to her veins. Her blood pumped faster and harder, she felt slightly dizzy. If this is what it meant by that sense of a weird week Shira felt that same morning, she'd rather be tied up, locked in the dorm tucked under the bed than go and face Draco.

"Isn't it time for lunch? I think it's time for lunch. I want food. Let's go to lunch. You want to get lunch?" Shira said quickly without breathing.

Draco smirked and rolled his eyes a little. "Lunch," he confirmed and stood up and grabbed his cloak and bag. Shira did the same and marched right out of the common room, followed by a boy with a pleased smile on his face and eyes that followed her movements hungrily.


	7. Oh, So Moody

The Great Hall was close to empty under the ceiling of dark threatening clouds, no one of Shira or Draco's friends had been freed for lunch yet, which bothered Shira a lot. So she sat down at the usual spot and Draco sat down opposite of her. In silence they sat there. While Shira was playing nervously with her nails, Draco was busy thinking about the conflicting emotions he felt. One moment he felt confident and was eager to play with Shira's feelings, the next he felt vulnerable and weak and didn't understand anything. The worst part of all this was that he didn't even bother to think about playing around like he used to. There were girls that flirted with him, of course, but they just didn't trigger his interest. Everything was getting out of control and changing. It wasn't right.

Suddenly he looked at Shira. She had obviously had some feelings for him for a while. He couldn't blame her for that. And he hadn't given her the attention she craved. She wanted him, but he didn't want her. And as every poor girl lost in Draco Malfoy she had taken to great measures to have him. Everyone knew Shira Lind was a brilliant potion-maker so now she had brewed a love potion to make him fall for her. How she had managed to make him drink the potion, he hadn't the faintest idea.

But Draco would not fall for her trick. He would be strong and show that pathetic witch that he was better than her. Yes, he would do that. With a determined look in his eyes he straightened his back and slid down the bench.

Shira looked up at him in confusion. Was he finally loosing it? Just out of no where he moved and looked like he believed himself to be Merlin.

Draco glared at her. Now she's trying to work some wandless magic on me. But I don't feel a thing. I am stronger than her! I can beat her! She won't have me, ever!

Right then, the halls outside the Great Hall erupted in noise and students began filing in for lunch.

No one noticed anything odd about Draco and Shira, and said nothing on the fact that they sat there alone, far away from each other. Lunch went as normal as a lunch at Hogwarts can be, there was some commotion at the Gryffindor table that caught the Slytherin's eyes. From what they saw, Granger had received an owl and it must have brought some news. If it was negative or positive wasn't easy to say, but it was something that affected the bliss of the retarded lions and friends.

Shira didn't care at the moment, she had other things on her mind, so she left earlier to stop by the Owlery and send the letter to her mother, Ellyn. Shira hated the Owlery, why couldn't anyone just clean there once in a while? Clearing a path for the students to walk on would be nice. Shira wrinkled her nose and stepped carefully trying to avoid the worst piles of dirt on the floor.

She picked out a butch, grey owl and attached the letter muttering angrily to herself. "I'm going to fucking get some bloody disease up here. But _daddy_ has to keep is owl to himself. The family owl is only for precious _daddy_ only, and his _business_. Well, get another fucking owl to do the business part, _daddy_!" She yelled that last part and scared the owls making them flap their wings and screeching like it was the end of the world. Shira swore at herself and walked out with her hands above her head as dirty feathers and dust floated around the room. "It's not like we can't bloody _afford_ it."

Shira took her time going back through the castle. She wasn't in a hurry, she didn't care if she came late to Defence-class. Yes, Mad-Eye was scary, very scary when he was mad, but right now Shira didn't care.

Merlin, how many times lately hadn't her thoughts wandered back to what was filling up her tired brain again? What was happening with Draco? He flirted and teased and drove her crazy. She'd wished for exactly that for a long time now, so why did she loose every steel nerve in her body when he did so?

"You're so bloody stupid, Shira," she said to herself. He's just playing with you, like he has played with them all. Normally I wouldn't have minded, but now I don't have time to play. Too bad actually, it's been way too long. So long I'm turning into a virgin again.

Shira sniggered sarcastically at her own thoughts. The Grey Lady flew by her and took a spin in mid-air eyeing the crazy-looking Slytherin.

Maybe I should just leave it up to mother and father to marry me away? Then I can play as much as I want with whoever I want. Merlin knows I need it.

Shira hadn't had sex since her fifth year. Theodore had been her first, and only they know just how _many_ times they did it. And when they broke up, Shira jumped the first and best guy just for the fun of it. It had been so long, she had almost forgotten what it was and what the point of it was.

I want sex!

Ugh, I can't even convince myself that I want it.

No, that was a lie. Your body is turning to ice, Shira. Thanks to that bloody _boy_.

"I should just go ahead and play with him and then go off marrying some mediocre Death Eater-in-disguise," she concluded her rambling thoughts and arrived at the Defence Against The Dark Arts room at long last.

She could hear Mad-Eye jabbering about inside. It was very tempting to skip the class and take a walk outside. Her head could do with some air. But no, Shira casually opened the door to the classroom and stepped in. The class turned around to see who it was coming so late, Shira received a look of disgust from Granger.

_Oh no, Ronald, I'm late for class. I'm so naughty._ Shira mimicked Granger coming late in her head and sniggered at her own thoughts again.

"How nice of you to join us, Miss Lind," Mad-Eye said in a monotone voice.

"Sorry, I'm late, professor," Shira said so sweetly it sounded like she just ate a Gringotts-vault full of sugar. "I had to send an owl, it was very important."

"You've had thirty minutes of lunch to do so, Miss Lind. I trust you can manage to eat and do your errands in that limit of time."

"I'm sorry, professor, I saw some pretty clouds on my way back and got distracted." Shira smiled her sweetest smile.

"One more smart comment from you in this class, Miss Lind, and you will find yourself with a year of detention." Mad-Eye turned to the black board and continued with his teaching.

"He hates me," Shira mouthed to Marieileen, who sat with Pansy, and sat down on the empty desk behind them. Marieileen laughed silently and focused on the freaky professor.

Shira glanced at Draco, who had had his eyes on her since she walked through the door. She questioningly arched her eyebrows. He did the same. She glared. He did the same. She reached out her tongue. He did the same. She smirked. He glared.

"Miss Lind, Mr. Malfoy, pay attention!" Mad-Eye roared still with his back turned writing on the black board.

Both of them snapped their head to the front and glared sideways at each other.

---

"Can I have your attention, please?" Headmistress McGonagall stood up at the teacher's table during dinner.

All the students ceased their eating and a chorus of forks being put down went through the Great Hall. It was amazing what authority old McGonagall had, nothing like senile Dumbledore had, but the entire student body had never done a move in sync before. Scary, Shira thought.

"Halloween is close, and the staff and I want to do something extra for you this year's Halloween Feast. We want you all to wear a costume at the feast. Nothing big, just something that's not the same old uniform or cloak. The feast will be at dinnertime, as usual, on Thursday. And we've decided to give you an entire day off, all classes will be cancelled and there will be short a trip to Hogsmeade right after breakfast instead. Friday will be as normal."

The entire room erupted in cheers. McGonagall smiled happily and silenced them with her hands. "I repeat, it's nothing big, it's just a slight twist to the traditional Halloween Feast. Now, continue with your dinner!" She sat back down and everyone began discussing their costumes.

Pansy was extremely excited. "This is going to be so exciting! I can't wait to visit Hogsmeade. Can't we sneak out tomorrow after dinner?"

"Calm down, Pansy. We're just wearing a costume for dinner," Shira said dully.

"But why not gather in the common room afterwards?" Marieileen suggested. "If not the whole house, so at least we seventh years can enjoy ourselves."

"That's a good idea!" Pansy smiled.

"It's a school night, you guys," Shira said.

"Why're you being so negative about this?" Marieileen asked sternly. Shira had been very moody since lunch. When spoken to, she answered often with one syllable, and her tone was very sharp. It was getting on Pansy and Marieileen's nerves.

"I'm not negative, just stating the facts."

"You _are_ negative! You've been negative all day! Did you hit your head during that free period or something?" Marieileen said angrily.

"Well, excuse me then!" Shira mumbled and hid her face behind the goblet filled with pumpkin juice.

"You've never been the one to kill the mood, so why'd you suddenly start being all Grangerish?"

"Shut up, and don't you call me Grangerish, or anything else... Grangerish again!" Shira snapped and left. Not in a dramatic hurry, but she casually left her friends sitting grinding their teeth.

Shira didn't come far, actually half way down the stairs to the dungeons, when she heard voices. She crept along the wall to the bottom of the stairs and listened.

"... said so, Ronald!" a girl whispered excitedly.

"No, no, no. It can't be true," the boy, who could be no other than Ron Weasley, said.

Shira stood flat up against the wall and carefully peered around the corner. Hermione Granger and Weaslebe stood a little down the hall. Granger held a piece of parchment in her hands and she waved it in front of a disbelieving Weasley.

"You read it yourself, Ronald. You know this is great news!" Granger's eyes were big as a house-elf's and she looked like she just had sex for the first time.

"B-b-but, it all looked so hopeless." He drew a hand through his hair. "This this... He, uh... Oh, M-Merlin."

Shira rolled her eyes at his stupid stuttering and stepped into the hall making her presence known. "Well, hello there. So, what are you two lovebirds doing down here in the dark, scary dungeons?" Shira slowly walked towards them.

They snapped their heads in her direction and Granger glared fiercely at her.

"Come on, give me some gossip, are you trying to kinky up the mudblood, Weasley?" Shira winked and smirked at him.

Of course he blushed, didn't even respond to "mudblood".

"What are _you_ doing here, Lind?" Granger hissed.

Shira blinked stupidly a few times. "_My common room is this way_." She waved her finger in the direction behind Mudblood and her dummy. Now it was Granger's turn to blush.

"So, tell me, what were the two of you whispering about? And what's that you've got there?" Shira asked trying to grab the letter in Granger's hands.

Granger whipped her hand away. "Keep your filthy hands away from that!"

"Filthy? My hands, filthy?" Shira broke into laughter. The two Gryffindors looked dumbfounded at her. When she finally managed to compose herself, she finished off the insult looking directly into Granger's eyes: "Your entire _being_ is filthy." Then she looked at Weasley. "And you're even filthier for being around _that_."

"What's going on here?" a voice that made Shira's blood mist away sounded from behind her. She turned and saw Draco with Gregory and Vincent at his sides. Blaise, Theodore, Marieileen and Pansy followed close behind.

"Nothing, Malfoy," Shira spat.

Draco looked surprised at Shira, he did not expect that. "What's going on, Shira?" he asked again.

She looked at each one of her friends, and then held Draco's eyes for two seconds before turning around, making sure she was in 7 feet distance from Granger and Weasley and disappeared around the corner to the common room hall.

Draco regained himself and glared venomously at the two Gryffindors. "I heard you call her filthy, Granger." He closed up on them, he was considerably taller than Granger, just as tall as Weasley, but it seemed like the red head shrunk in Draco's presence. "You have no right to speak to her like that. And you are not worthy of even looking at her, Weasley."

If looks could kill, they would be dead and the world would forget their existence. Something in Draco's voice and posture made Ron Weasley whimper and Hermione Granger shiver.

With nothing else to say to the pathetic two-some, the Slytherins continued to the common room. Pansy pushed Weasley into the wall when she passed him.

"Goodness, those arrogant insects!" they heard Granger cry in the distance.

"Unforgivable," Draco said to the stone wall and the common room appeared.

"Hey, Draco, can I talk to you for a moment?" Marieileen asked before he went through.

"Sure," he shrugged and let the others pass.

She paced over to the dead end of the hall and Draco followed. "Do you know anything about why Shira is so bloody moody?"

"No, I don't," he answered sounding truthful. "Should I?"

Marieileen shook her head. "What is going on with you two lately? Bickering a tiny bit more than usual, being awkward, being alternately best friends and worst enemies..." Her arms were folded over her chest and she tried to look demanding so he'd spill whatever it was.

"Nothing," he answered confused.

"What was up with the way you defended her just now then?"

"Shouldn't I have done it?"

"It's not that, you just seemed... very... protective. Very unlike you."

"I wanted to frighten them, that's why. It has nothing to do with being protective or anything like that." He looked a little uncomfortable.

"_You are not worthy of looking at her_. I don't think I've ever heard you trying to scare anyone saying that. I didn't think you _could_ scare anyone saying that."

"You know what I think, Storme? I think you are asking too many questions, no need to bother that pretty little head of yours like that." And he brushed past her, said the password again and vanished.

Marieileen was left with a puzzled look, trying to make sense of what was going on. She knew Shira very well, and knew something was up. Marieileen realised it had been going on for a while and she couldn't understand why she hadn't noticed before. Because she always knew everything that happened with Shira, she knew Shira was getting together with Theodore before they knew themselves, she knew they were breaking up before they did. She knows when Shira is up to something. She knew a lot. But she knew very little of what was going on this year.

She decided to ask Shira, but not before making sure she was calm and wouldn't snap again. Marieileen hated it when they were not on that perfect wavelength, she had to make it right at once.

---

Shira had marched straight up into the dorm when she left her friends to deal with Granger and Weasley. She dropped the bag on the floor and tore off her cloak and fell onto her bed just staring into nothing.

She was so confused. During the entire Potions class and their free period, Draco had been teasing and perhaps a bit flirtatious. But in Defence he glared at her every chance he got. So Shira sat there at a desk alone, receiving negative vibes from him. During dinner he ignored her, they talked to everyone, but he didn't even bother with her.

Shira was tearing up inside. She couldn't believe how confusing and complicated life had become. Her mental life that is. She didn't know she could be this weak. Being strong and in perfect control all the time, her 17 year long life had been like that. And all it took to shake that ground was a boy. A _boy_ not really that important. He thought he was important, but he wasn't. He was just another wizard in school, not believed to be anything big.

Yet he managed to mess up a girl so easily.

That bastard.

Ever since she got to know Draco the first year, they had been friends. Better friends as the years progressed. They shared good times and bad times. But somewhere along the road, Shira had developed deeper feelings for him. That was okay, it was no problem at all. She didn't want a relationship with him, because she saw how he was. He played with every girls' feelings, Shira did not want that. She swore to herself that she would never ever act on her feelings, and she would pretend that all he meant to her was nothing more than any of her other friends.

Right now, Shira missed the carefree first year. Even the years before Hogwarts.

What had changed?

She had grown, of course. And with that some things tend to change. But what the hell happened on the train this year? Shira just knew that that was when it happened.

After lying and pondering about it for a few minutes, her thoughts began repeating themselves. Then she heard the door open. Shira grabbed her wand and quickly closed the drapes before whoever it was noticed her.

Someone walked in and the door closed. Footsteps came closer to her bed. "Shira?" It was Marieileen. "Are you inside there?"

"Yeah," Shira answered and mentally slapped herself.

Marieileen's golden head popped through the green drapes. "You okay?"

"Meh." Shira shrugged and put her hands behind her head and crossed her legs.

Marieileen came inside and sat down on the foot end. She flipped out her wand, stuck it through the drapes and put a locking spell and a silencing spell on the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked straightforward.

Shira sighed. "Nothing special."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying."

"Yes, you are. I know you."

"Well, I'm not lying."

"Shira, please."

"A bad day?" Shira tried sweetly.

Now Marieileen sighed. "Fine, don't tell your best friend."

"Sorry, sweetie. Whatever it is, it's nothing you need to worry your pretty little head about."

"Deja vú." Marieileen rolled her eyes.

Shira raised her head and looked questioningly at her.

"Nothing."

The two of them sit and lie in silence for a few minutes until Marieileen thinks she is safe enough to ask what she really came for.

"What's going on with you and Draco?"

Shira's blood ran cold. Stiff as a log she answered, "What do you mean?"

"The way you've been acting lately, like I said to him-"

Shira jerked up. "You talked to _him_ about me?" she interrupted.

"It's not just about you!"

She laid back down. "Continue."

"Like I said to Draco, you're the best of friends one moment and the next you're enemies. You're bickering, acting strange..."

"Isn't that normal?"

"Well yeah, I suppose. But..."

"But what?"

Marieileen didn't bother. She wouldn't get anything out of her. Stubborn until the deadly end. And it's not like things were _that_ different.

"So, you still negative about the costume-thing on Halloween?"

Shira smiled awkwardly. "No. Sorry about that."

Marieileen brushed it off with a flashy smile just like she could. "What are you going to wear?"

Now Shira sat up and was more eager. "I don't know. What are you going to wear?"

"Not much." Marieileen smirked. "I was thinking something sneaky spiderish. And pink."

"Nice." Shira nodded approvingly.

"I think you should go for something very revealing..."

They soon lifted the spells on the door and Pansy joined them. Later Millicent and Daphne came and they stayed up late just discussing outfits and what would be the perfect outfits for the other students. Granger would do a great beaver and Luna Lovegood would be perfect as a Bowtruckle.


	8. Caught By Surprise

Just as Shira felt on Monday morning, it would be a weird week. But Tuesday was as normal as ever, well, almost. Draco was still ignoring her and actually breaking her heart doing that. Transfiguration that day was horrible. It was the only class where they were the only Slytherins. Out of old habit they sat down next to each other. Shira tried to say something, but he only grunted in return. She gave him a confused glare, if that was even possible, but he didn't even turn in her direction, not once.

Thank Merlin I can stick to Pansy and Marieileen the rest of the day, Shira thought.

At the end of the class when they packed up he said something though. "You forgot the Potions-project last night."

Shira gasped. "Oh Merlin! Sorry, I'll remember tonight," was her immediate reaction. But she soon switched. "Did you go?"

"Of course I did," he said aggressively.

"You could've gotten a hold of me."

"And fall down the bloody stairs when they turn into a slide? No thanks." He heaved his bag on his shoulder and trotted out of the classroom.

"You know I can easily ruin the project for you?" she said when she ran after him.

"That would ruin it for you too."

"I don't care," she said and walked past him. "Just make sure to be ready tonight."

And she left him swearing like a madman in her head.

So that night they all sat in the common room. Pansy was still talking about her costume for the Halloween feast, and by that receiving a lot of glares and sighs.

Right before curfew Draco stood up and gave Shira a meaningful look. She understood and without a word they went for the Potions classroom. The others had been there earlier that night.

Their potion looked good, as a matter of fact it looked perfect. Draco stirred in it for a few minutes while Shira wrote down the night's observations. It had a syrupy consistence and a purple colour, almost lilac, it smelled absolutely nothing.

She rolled up the parchment and waited for Draco to be done stirring. She watched his slender hand go around and around with a firm grip on the stick. He had beautiful strong hands. Shira noticed his movements went slower and slower. Her own thoughts went slower. She saw everything in slow motion. The silence around them seemed compact. Shira's body temperature rose. Her heart beat hard, heavy and slow because she saw and felt everything slower.

Draco noticed something sneaking into him. A sweet feeling of warmth, fever and excitement. It annoyed him and he interpreted it as plain arousal. Something he definitely should not be feeling. Not with Shira in the same room, alone. He glanced at her and it looked like she was concentrating on something.

That bitch was trying some magic again. Was she never giving up?

He decided that the Mandrake Draught was done for the day and angrily turned away from Shira to dry the stick and put it back in the cupboard holding equipment. When he turned back around she already stood by the door waiting for him and looked normal again. The sweet feeling inside Draco was gone. To his surprise, he kind of missed it. He grunted and went into the dungeon halls. He bumped into Shira on the way and she hit her back on the side of the door.

"What was that for?" she snapped at him and closed the door.

"What was what?" he asked innocently.

She walked up to him. "You pushed me into the door."

"I did not." He was acting so bloody innocent and arrogant that Shira fumed.

"Why the _hell_ are you being so stupidly mean towards me? What the _hell_ happened to you? What the _hell_ have I done?"

He changed from "innocent" to malicious. With a low yet powerful voice he said: "You know bloody well what you have done. And I want you to stop doing it." With that he did a "Snape" and turned briskly around with a swish of his cloak and disappeared down the hall.

That was Tuesday. But Wednesday, Shira's first class was Care of Magical Creatures with all of Hagrid's fans. Minus a few of the regular ones. Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom were not there. Shira didn't think any of it at once, but when Hagrid or their other friends never once asked about them, she knew something was not right. And as the only Slytherin, it was her job to find out what.

Shira casually inched closer to a group of their friends, Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil and Susan Bones, maybe she could overhear them whispering about something. Getting more and more frustrated throughout the class, Shira realised that not one intelligent word would slip over their lips, ever.

Shira had to talk to someone.

When Hagrid finally said: "Class dismissed," she rushed up the hill to the castle. No one was outside on the grounds. She sped through the Entrance Hall and down into the dungeons, past a bunch of confused second years and into the common room.

But the only people there were a few younger students obviously skipping classes. They looked terrified when the door opened, but breathed out when they saw it was only Shira.

"You know I can tell on you," she snapped at them. They jumped in their seats. "I won't if you behave." She laughed sitting down in the usual couch by one of the fireplaces.

It wasn't long before Marieileen, Blaise and Draco came in and joined Shira by the fireplace.

"Hey, Shira," Marieileen greeted and joined Blaise on the smaller couch on the left.

"Hey, guys. I've got something you need to know."

"And what might that be?" Draco said and sat down next to her, but as far away as possible. Shira now sat between two lovers in the making and a guy that seemed disgusted by her. Enjoyable.

She quickly rolled her eyes before telling them about her discovery in the Care of Magical Creatures class. "Something is going on. Weasley, Granger and Longbottom are gone."

"And?" Blaise asked. "Isn't that normal this year?"

"Weasley and Granger yes, but why the long bottom too? And Hagrid didn't call their name at the beginning of class, no body asked about them, if they were sick or something like that. It's like everybody knew something and I didn't."

"Oh, we feel so sorry for you," Draco drawled.

Shira sent him a sideways glance, before continuing. "Don't you guys think it's weird?" No reaction. "Come on, Draco, you must think it's bad? Being suspicious of every little thing they've done for almost seven years now."

"But it's nothing we can do anything about, now is there?" Draco said casually. "Remember what Marcus said?"

"You guys are no fun." Shira pouted.

"I don't like it either, but, hit me hard for saying this, Draco is right," Marieileen said. Blaise hit her arm playfully. "Why don't you send an owl to Marcus or your father or someone and ask?" Marieileen suggested.

"Yeah, I suppose I could. Because you guys do think something is going on? You don't think I'm being stupid again?" Shira asked distrustfully.

"I'm not even going to answer that," Draco said.

Blaise and Marieileen gave him an odd look.

"What?" Draco barked.

"Nothing," Marieileen shook her head defensively.

"I don't really think we should dig too deep into it, no matter what it is," Blaise said. "If we are supposed to know, we will know. Someone will tell us if we need to know."

"Wow, Blaise goes deep. Well, as deep as possible for Blaise," Shira teased.

Blaise glared at her, and Marieileen chuckled. Even Draco sniggered. "Aha!" Shira pointed at Draco. "I knew you weren't mad!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Mad?"

"Yeah, you've been so cross the last few days! Since... since Monday!"

"I have not." He refused to look at her.

"Then what was that last night outside the Potions-classroom all about?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Let's go," Marieileen told Blaise. He nodded and they left Draco and Shira bickering, again.

"Ever noticed how alike those two are?" they vaguely heard Blaise say before the common room door closed.

"I am not like her!" Draco snapped and stood up, suddenly raging. The few students scattered around the room jumped at the sound of his voice.

"I'd rather die, than have anything in common with _you_," he said lower.

"What happened, Draco?" Shira said, hurt shining through her eyes.

He blinked a few times, as if reconsidering yelling at her because of the lost look she got in her eyes.

"What happened, Draco?" she repeated barely audible.

He cringed inside at her voice. He felt something painful in his gut, like a huge lump had dropped down and grown trying to make his stomach explode. Draco never knew Shira could be this vulnerable. All these years of knowing her, and he never knew. The lump in his stomach grew and grew.

He stared at her, she stared back. Both trying to see what the other was thinking. Draco had the ability to read her mind, but was afraid of what he would see, so he didn't. Instead he tried to see beyond the hurt in her eyes like a normal person. He saw nothing, he couldn't read it.

Draco had to get out of there, even though he knew that would hurt her more. "Stop it, Shira. I'm leaving now, and when I see you again, I don't want any of this nonsense you're playing." He rushed past the other students, bumped into their table and disturbed their game of Exploding Snaps.

"Watch it, Malfoy," the boldest one yelled after him. With a flick of his wand, Draco had banished their game to the other side of the room and shut the door behind him.

Left was Shira, feeling alone, and again breaking inside. To her great horror she actually felt tears threatening to burst out, so she quietly walked up to her dorm like nothing was the matter. There she laid down her bed, closed the drapes and let herself sob quietly into the pillow.

At the moment she hated Draco. What was with the sudden hate and hostility? In the blink of an eye he had turned against her. And at the same time turning her emotional life upside down and into complete chaos.

For a long while Shira laid there on the bed, sobbing and feeling sorry for herself. When her thoughts began to collect themselves, she came to the conclusion that she was finished with Draco. No more feelings for him, whatsoever. It wouldn't be easy, but she'd manage somehow. And that meant she probably wouldn't find a boyfriend at all this year, not one good enough to please her parents.

Shira composed herself and got up and into the bathroom to freshen up and go to lunch. There she sat with Pansy, Daphne and Millicent, Marieileen and Blaise where nowhere to be seen and Draco sat at he other end of the table with Theodore, Vincent and Gregory.

Pansy noticed that something was wrong with Shira. Her heart just wasn't into the conversation like it used to be. But since Pansy knew Shira as well as she did, she didn't want to confront her about it, at least not in the middle of the Great Hall.

In Defence Against the Dark Arts the girls met up with Marieileen, who had nothing to say about why she and Blaise were missing at lunch, and definitely not if they had been missing together. Potions was boring again. Shira and Draco had to sit together because of the Mandrake Draught, and never had the two of them been so quiet in class. Neither raised their hand to Slughorn questions, neither said anything to each other or anyone else. In silence they did the next step in brewing the potion, but they worked well together, so speaking wasn't necessary.

"Meet you here before curfew here tonight?" Draco asked when class was dismissed.

"I'll be here," Shira answered quietly and left him standing with that lump in his stomach again.

Bitch, was all he thought.

---

"Given any thoughts to the costumes for tomorrow?" Pansy asked as they were heading back to the common room after dinner.

"Not really," Marieileen answered. "I'm not so sure about that spiderish thing anymore though. Lot's of legs waving around."

Pansy chuckled at the mental image. "But how about a legless spider?"

"Sure, and everyone will understand what it is at once." She sighed. "Nah, just have to see if I find anything in Hogsmeade tomorrow. How you thought about it, Shira?"

"No, I haven't," she answered. "It's not that important to me anyway."

"Okay..."

"But it's great that we get an entire day off?" Pansy asked.

"Yeah, lovely," Shira answered unenthusiastically.

They reached the entrance to the common room, Pansy said the password and they went inside. It was homework time, they had agreed to devote the day to homework so they could have Halloween free from schoolwork of any kind. Theodore and Blaise soon joined them.

Shira didn't realise she had this much homework. It seemed like the pile of books and parchment grew each time she looked at it. That was depressing. This essay on the new subject in Defence Against the Dark Arts was killing her. She hated Mad-Eye. The day before Halloween, he loaded them with homework, and told them to have it on his desk by Friday. He had the tendency to do that. And lucky for him, they had Defence on Friday and Monday, so tons of homework during the weekend was not unusual. Shira decided to wait with the Defence essay until she was done with the rest.

A couple of hours later she only had that bloody essay left. And nothing she had ever learned in her 17 years long life seemed to help her. Nothing in the books, nothing from her friends. This left the library, one thing she seriously hated. All the books, all the categories, all the _dust_. And Madam Pince. That horrible woman seemed to have a grudge against Shira especially. Even more so than against Potter and Weasley. On some occasions she had seen the librarian put them firmly in their place.

"I'm just going a quick errand to the library," she said and stood up. A chorus of murmurs followed and Marieileen looked up and smiled at her. She smiled half-heartedly back.

---

Draco had been to Quidditch practice. It felt so good to be back for real in the Quidditch game, since he hadn't played at all last year. It had been a good workout, he had caught the snitch numerous times and began practicing a few new moves. Except that his Quidditch robe was soaked from the rain and filthy from stretching out on the pitch, he was pleased and couldn't wait to take a hot shower to regain warmth in his body.

The workout had taken his mind off an issue he was so desperately trying to avoid thinking about. But now, as the reached the dungeons, his mind wandered back to "forbidden" thoughts. The idea he had that Shira was working some kind of magic on him was a farfetched thought. Not one spell or potion he knew could make someone react in the way he did.

So different from anything he had ever felt, yet so much the same. The primal need to hunt and conquer, use and dispose. But at the same time a wish to keep safe and protect. And fright of loosing control.

"Draco Malfoy isn't scared of anything!" Draco said to himself and stopped to kick the wall at the end of the hallway. Mad at the bloody hard wall, he was about to turn left in the crossing hall, but he heard someone coming closer from where he was heading. He stepped backwards, and backed up against the wall away from sight. Carefully he peeked down the direction of the common room and jumped back.

Shira was coming.

"Bloody hell..."

She came through the turn not noticing Draco now leaning nonchalantly against the wall. As she walked past him, he saw her movements. Confident, cat-like, with her open robe flowing behind her like wings. Every feeling he was trying to repress, came back in full force.

Wanting an explanation for the strong unfamiliar feelings he felt, Draco ran and jumped in front her and shoved her hard against the wall, hurting her back. He pinned her arms to the wall above her head and lowered his face to hers, fury burning in his cold eyes. "What the hell are you doing to me?" he yelled with such power, Shira felt it like she was being hit in the face with a tornado.

"What the hell is wrong with you? I'm not doing anything to you!" Shira didn't understand anything. Here she was walking to the library, minding her own business, when suddenly Draco came pushing her around and yelling at her and dirtying up her favourite robes. "I was just walking, for fuck's sake!"

"No, you were not! What kind of spell are you using? Curse? Hex? Or is it a potion in my food?" The power in his yelling grew with every word.

Shira looked at him with a truly oblivious face, and felt her anger grow. She was not going to tolerate this kind of behaviour. She tried to get away from him, but he just tightened the grip on her wrists. "Let me go, you bloody freak! I got to get to the library!"

"Come on! Answer me! What the hell are you using? Tell me, so I can make it go away!"

"Have you gone completely mental?" Then she muttered quickly under her breath: "Of course you haven't, you were born mental," before continuing to Draco. "I swear I have _nothing_ to do with whatever the hell is so obviously wrong with you! Now would you let me go, you're hurting me!"

"You have everything to do with it! You knew I was done with practice and you came to cast a spell or something idiotic on me again! Making me feel-" Draco interrupted himself. His face suddenly changed as he scanned her face.

"Making you what?" Shira asked tired of this.

She's so close. She's vibrating. With anger, but still... Merlin, she smells so good. I wonder how she tastes...

His eyes now flashed with lust as they rested on her lips. "I hate you..." he mumbled hoarsely. Before Shira had the chance to do anything, Draco crashed his lips onto hers.

Shira was caught by complete surprise. She froze and stared into his closed eyes. This was something she didn't expect. She closed her eyes and kissed him back before he had the time to realise she was shocked frozen.

Draco licked her lower lip, and Shira knew she had to take advantage of this situation, so she parted her lips without doubt and shivered as their tongues met. Draco let go of her wrists and let his hands roam her sides inside the robe, he closed the gap between them and pushed her harder into the wall with his body.

Shira wrapped her arms around his neck, playing with his wet hair and receiving an intake of breath from Draco when her fingers touched his skin. One of Draco's hands wandered down, grabbed a hold of her thigh, and lifted it up to get them even closer to each other.

But not long after, Draco let her go. She almost fell to the floor. Her legs were like jelly and the only reason she had managed to stand was because his body had been pressed against hers. Shira quickly regained balance breathing heavily and shakily focused her eyes on Draco.

He looked at her in horror. "N-never... never..." he stuttered and pointed at her before marching away to take that shower, and make it very cold.

In a daze, Shira somehow reached the library, found the books she needed and went back to the common room and the essay, thankfully remembering to cast scourgify on herself before getting inside. She had a grin on her face and dropped the books onto the table.

The others looked up at who dared to disturb their concentration. To their surprise it was Shira, a happy Shira. That had been a rarity these days.

"What's up?" Marieileen asked.

"Nothing," Shira answered still smirking. "Absolutely nothing at all."

With a lot lighter spirit than before, she finished her homework, and decided to go check on the Mandrake Draught before it was too late. She hadn't seen Draco since he left her in the hall, and wasn't even sure he would show up.

The potion was looking good as expected. It even began getting this sour smell it was supposed to according to the textbooks. Shira went over to her and Draco's cupboard and got the small bag of powdered Mandrake root. She added a pinch of it and the potion sizzled.

At that point Draco came in. "What are you doing here?" he asked like he hadn't expected to see her there.

"I'm _working on our project,_" she answered. "Could you put the Mandrake back?"

"Sure." He picked up the small plastic bag and went over. "How's the potion?" he asked with his back to her.

"It's perfect."

"Good."

"Sizzling stopped, done."

"Good night then."

"Good night."

Draco left quickly and Shira could hear him swear down the hall.

* * *

A/N

Two things about this chapter:

1. I've dedicated one sentence to Ann-Marie who is a Snape-fan. You'll know which sentence it is when you read it.

2. I got the title for the story from this chapter.


	9. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

There was a very light atmosphere around the school the morning of Halloween. Every student with permission to visit Hogsmeade was up and eating breakfast. Shira always enjoyed the Great Hall on Halloween, and this year was no exception. At the moment it was not fully decorated, but certainly getting there. The white candles that floated above the tables to light the dark mornings were replaced with orange and black candles. Together with the cloudy and threatening reflection of the sky outside it was beautiful. Baby pumpkins were scattered on the tables, they were cut out in scary faces and shining with a dim light that would shine brightly at dinner. Even the breakfast had been made Halloweenish by adding liquorice spiders to the porridge and pumpkin flesh to the pumpkin juice.

The threatening clouds seemed even more threatening outside in their right element. They were travelling lazily back and forth over the sky and teased the tiny witches and wizards on the ground with the possibility of heavy rain. The small cold wind that pushed the clouds around crept under everyone's cloaks and caused goose bumps. The carriages arrived and the three Slytherin girls occupied one of the closest and savoured the magical warmth inside.

"Such a wonderful morning," Shira said where she sat with her winter cloak and green and grey scarf.

Marieileen looked puzzled at her brown haired friend as the carriage began moving. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?" Shira answered innocently and received a glare from both Marieileen and Pansy.

"You can't go to the library all depressed and come back like you've just become Queen of the World."

"My my, that would have been nice..." Shira mused.

"Come on! I want to know too," Pansy whined.

"Okay, let's just say that someone surprised me halfway there." A pleased smirk rested on her lips. "And I've gotten something I wanted for a long time now."

Her two friends looked extremely curious at her. "What does that mean?" Pansy asked.

"Meh," Shira shrugged not wanting to spill more of what happened in the hallway last night. The scene was playing over and over again in Shira's mind. She could still feel every sensation from that moment, relive every sound and every movement and every smell. She must have gotten a revealing look on her face because Marieileen suddenly leaned forward in her seat.

"Let me take a look at you," she said. "I remember that smugness from something." With peering brown eyes she looked into Shira's green ones, "Yes," she looked closely at her hair checking for an extra shine, "Nope." With the comment, "What happened last night?" she scanned Shira's skin colour and got the result she expected. A very light pink.

With a content look Marieileen leaned back again and nudged Pansy's side. "I know what it is."

When she didn't say anything else, Pansy was about to burst with curiosity. "What is it?"

Marieileen weighed her words carefully. "She has been tainted."

Shira's eyes popped out of her head, so did Pansy's. "How do you do that?" Pansy asked.

"Yeah, how do you do that?" Shira asked.

"Intuition. And something only I like to call a tiny amount of Legilimency. That seems to only work on Shira."

"How nice," Shira muttered sarcastically.

"So, tainted in what way?" Pansy asked Shira this time.

Marieileen answered before Shira could. "In the kissed way."

"You're kidding."

"Never."

"Who was it, Shira?" Now it was Pansy's turn to lean forward, but the carriage came to an abrupt stop and Shira was quick to jump out.

"You've figured out this much, but you'll never find out who the lucky guy was."

"In due time, Sweets." Marieileen jumped out last and then, as if on cue, Draco and his bodyguards jumped out of the carriage that had parked next to them. Next to them again, Blaise and Theodore came out of a carriage.

Shira's eyes met Draco's for a short second, he turned away with a glare, not as malicious as before, but still a glare.

"Shall we go, girls?" Shira asked suddenly.

"Yes," Pansy answered and Marieileen gave a short nod in Blaise's direction before they walked ahead and let the boys deal with themselves.

The girls walked straight to Gladrags Wizardwear to check out the new stacks of Halloween costumes. Not long after them, the boys and flocks of other students came in and stressed up the old man running the shop. He rushed around with his measuring tape and scribbled down sizes on an old pad, before he disappeared in the back room to find the right costume.

It didn't take Pansy, Marieileen and Shira long before they found their choice in costumes. They paid the clerk and with a sigh of relief they closed the shop door behind them. The buzzing of excited girls and complaining boys was muted and they slowly walked up the road, more or less heading for The Three Broomsticks. But halfway there, Marieileen stopped.

"I uh... I'm going to meet up with Blaise," she said. "We need to talk about some things."

Shira chuckled at her friend's nervousness. "Of course, Marieileen."

"We completely understand," Pansy added with a smirk. "Go have fun!"

Marieileen nodded to them and started in the other direction. "I'll probably meet up with you when it's time to go back."

"Okay! Just don't do anything I wouldn't do," Shira called after her.

"That doesn't leave much fun!" Marieileen turned and walked backwards away from them.

Shira sent her the finger, but laughed with Pansy.

It wasn't as crowded in the cosy bar as they thought, but of course, most of the students were probably still in Gladrags.

"You'd think it was the Yule Ball all over again," Pansy said as the two sat down on a couple of high chairs by the bar.

"Oh, Merlin, I remember the hysteria," Shira groaned.

They ordered Butterbeer and chatted for a while, remembering the Yule Ball and all that happened that year the Beauxbaton and Durmstrang students were at Hogwarts.

About an hour later, a shadow fell over them. "Hello, girls." A hand was put on each of their shoulders. Both spun around and saw the familiar face of Marcus. Shira instantly jumped into a hug. "Always so happy to see me, Nasty!"

"Of course! And twice in a month, that's a bloody record!"

They broke apart and Marcus gave Pansy a quick hug. "Where's Storme?"

Both Pansy and Shira broke into smirks. "She's off with Blaise, _talking_," Pansy answered.

Marcus frowned at first, but then it dawned on him. "No kidding! Good for them."

"But what brings you here, Marcus?" Shira had to ask.

"I have news." The tone in his voice made the two girls' blood run cold. "I just saw the carriages arrive when I Apparated onto the Hogsmeade Station. I'll join you on the way back and we'll talk there." He reached inside his cloak and took out an Invisibility Cloak and a letter fell out.

"Oh yeah," he picked it up, "This' for you Shira." He handed over the parchment, and surely enough, in sophisticated curls it said _Shira Lind_. "I was at your Manor yesterday, had a nice little chat with 'auntie' Ellyn about the news, and she figured I could give you this since I was coming to Hogwarts today anyway. And she says hi to all of you."

Shira placed the letter in her pocked. "You're coming to Hogwarts too?"

"Yeah, business." He threw the Invisibility Cloak over him. "Let's go," his voice said.

Marieileen was nowhere to be seen. But the three others occupied a carriage and it drove back up to the school when all the students had arrived at the station. They talked about everyday stuff all the way up, and it was a bit odd talking to Marcus' voice, he didn't risk taking off the cloak.

The invisible Marcus and the girls and Marieileen had gone up the seventh year boys' dorm right after they got back. This was the only place Marcus could stay, in the girls' dorm there were two people that couldn't be trusted with Death Eater business and he couldn't even climb the stairs safely. Marcus revealed himself and filled the boys and Marieileen in on what he had said so far. The news of him staying a few days was very well received, all though they were all extremely curious about why he was there. But he wouldn't say anything until after the feast, he figured they should enjoy that before he brought the news upon them.

---

The air around the Slytherin House was almost like it was before the Yule Ball, not quite as hysterical, but still kind of the same. Something exciting and different like this rarely happened at Hogwarts. And Shira was joking and being her normal self with her friends as they got into their costumes. It wasn't exactly her favourite pass-time to be moody like she had been the last days, but when she was knocked off the line, it was hard to find balance again. But luckily Draco, being the one that knocked her off, was the one that made her find the balance again.

The girls got ready to go down to dinner. Millicent and Daphne was down in the sixth year dorm, it had only been Pansy, Shira and Marieileen enjoying the dorm. They were quite a sight after all the preparations. Pansy was a beautiful mermaid in a pink corset inspired top and sea-green scaly dress that tightened just above her ankles and then widened in a deeper green fluffy fabric. She had a pink sea-star in her pitch black hair and very pink make-up. The outfit and her milky skin sparkled like it had just been in the water. Marieileen was a ladybug all in red with black dots. Red sandals, black stockings to above her knees, a semi short dotted dress that was shaped like a bubble around her thighs and a cute dotted top with puffy sleeves. She even had flapping wings and horns. While the other two was cute and fluffy looking, Shira was greyer. She was a ghost maid. She wore a dark grey dress that reached her knees. It showed a deep cleavage and was very tight around her waist. A dirty white apron was tied around her waist and it was full of holes. She had magically paled her skin and it stood out in contrast to the dress and the black boots she wore. To top it off she carried with her a worn feather duster.

Before they went to the Great Hall they walked down the stairs and then up to the boys' dorm to check up on Marcus.

"At your service, Marcus," Shira said and stood behind him on the bed he sat on. "Want me to bring you some dinner?"

He bent his head backwards to look at her. "Fuck," he said with a jolt as he saw how pale and dead she looked. "Good job on the costume. And no need for dinner, I've got resources for that."

Shira smirked at his compliment. "Whatever you say, Master, but I'll hide a bun or two in my apron pocket anyway."

"Sure you don't have a bun or two already?" he joked.

A choir of chuckles was heard, but Shira grimaced. "If you ever say anything like that to me again, I'll start calling you Marky."

Now Marcus grimaced. "Won't ever happen again."

Shira looked up to finally notice what the boys wore. Theodore was the cliché vampire with a grey shirt and lace bonnet, black coat with red trimmings, black pressed trousers and shiny boots. He had blindingly white gloves and he too had magically paled his skin, and added a rim of deep red blood on the corners of his lips. Blaise was a mad executioner, all black too, a ripped shirt without sleeves and baggy pants. A chain hung loosely round his waist and over his shoulders. He wore a black scarf on his head and had huge heavy boots. And typical to Blaise, he had made his chocolate skin glisten so his muscles looked like they were constantly flexing. Draco was a Dementor. In a dirty brown torn cloak that was done with a spell so it made the same floating movements it should. He had a hood on and it threw shadows over his face. He looked real, but it was of course the safest and surest of all costumes. Behind the three boys stood Vincent and Gregory dressed up as troll and giant.

Shira had to chuckle at the sight of the two latter, not one costume in the whole school would be more fitting.

"Now stop ogling each other and go eat," Marcus said and reached for the Invisibility Cloak. "I'm off to snoop around."

The eight seventh years went down followed by an invisible friend. Just before they slipped out in the hall, Marcus whispered to Shira: "I'll be waiting out here to be let in when you come back." She nodded in response and heard his footsteps leave in the other direction.

In the Great Hall they got a surprise. The house tables were gone and replaced by smaller tables, still divided in house colours though. The entire Hall was very beautifully decorated, the number of pumpkins had doubled or even tripled from earlier years, at least, and the small pumpkins on the tables was surely shining very brightly and gave a beautiful warm glow to the room. Hay lay here and there over the floor and especially in the corners. Right under the magical ceiling a flock of bats flied busily around. There were spider webs everywhere, between the legs of the chairs, on the tables, the floor, walls...

"The person that manages to get out of here without web on themselves should get a price," Shira said with a chuckle.

As an answer to that, Marieileen grabbed a handful from under their table and chucked it at her.

"Thanks," she said and arranged it in her hair. "Now I look even deader."

"And a good looking dead person at that," Theodore was winking at her. "If it wasn't for the fact that I'd be thrown in Azkaban too early, I'd kill you right now."

Shira just raised an eyebrow quizzically, but didn't get in any more response as Headmistress McGonagall stood up and cleared her throat. "Dear students. Before we begin our holiday feast, I would like to say a few words. We, the professors at Hogwarts, wanted to do something special for this year's Halloween, as you have noticed. Our world is standing under a great threat, and the future seems unsure. Fear and worry colour our day and we wanted to give our students a day to enjoy as the times are slowly looking brighter. We wish to make this a new tradition at Hogwarts, to make Halloween a day of joy and festivities. And we hope that this day will be the first of many, many, many more to come. Happy Halloween!"

And the food appeared on the tables.

"Speeches like that make me sick," Draco said spitefully filling up his plate.

"You're not alone on that," Blaise added. "Especially since it seemed like they're up to something."

"Which would probably explain why _Marcus_ is here," Shira said, whispering Marcus' name.

"Let's not talk about that right now," Marieileen warned and looked around carefully.

"But did he tell _you_ why he is here?" Draco asked Shira, and she was surprised by the civil tone in his voice. "I mean anything else than what he already told us."

"No, he didn't." Shira put her fork down and sighed. She lowered her voice so only the people at her table could hear. "But it can't be any good, or else he wouldn't have come to tell us about it and spy around."

Draco nodded to that, so did the others. They let the topic go for the moment and continued with more normal issues.

Shira was in deep thought at the same time she talked with her friends. Not thinking about whatever it was that her self proclaimed big brother was doing at her school, but something at the moment closer to her. The scene from the hallway kept playing over and over in her mind. She constantly wondered what Draco thought about it and why he did it, she both wanted to know and would rather die than knowing. His behaviour towards her had changed during the day. He was acting more civilized and even close to the way it used to be between them. She was happy about that, because she couldn't imagine how it would be if she lost Draco as a friend. And worse was that she had no idea why he had been mad at her. It became clear yesterday that he blamed her for something that was going on with him. But she didn't know what it was. No clue at all.

Something she knew was that she wanted it to happen again. But she was certain it wouldn't. She had seen the horror and regret in his eyes when he had broken the kiss and run away. Yet she saw something now, an uncertainty and thoughtfulness. Like he was considering something. It was really strange. Shira had experienced a lot of moods and sides of Draco last year, when he worked on that big mission. She had watched him closely and thought she had seen it all, but she had obviously hadn't.

Why did he go from normal, to mean, to kissing her passionately like that, being horror-struck and then almost normal again?

Merlin, now she was getting all confused and depressed again.

Shira turned all of her attention back to the conversation going on and the beautiful desserts that had appeared on the tables.

"Are we having that 'party' we talked a little about?" Pansy asked behind a big piece of pumpkin pie.

"What party?" Blaise asked.

"The three of us," she gestured to Marieileen and Shira, "kind of talked about getting together in the common room after this. We're not sure if anyone else has planned a party, but at least we could have some fun."

"That sounds good," Theodore said. "Marcus will probably want to be there too."

"Except that he can't be seen," Shira said.

"Bummer."

---

"You here, Marcus?" Shira asked carefully when the friends came back from the Halloween Feast full and happy, some of the last to leave.

"Right here," Marcus answered right next to her ear and she jumped in surprise. Blaise said the password and they walked inside with Marcus in the middle up into the boys' dorm again, but Shira took a left turn.

"Where are you going?" Marieileen asked.

"I just thought I'd get mother's letter, haven't read it yet."

The girls' dorm was empty, so Shira quickly reached for the inside pocket of her cloak and found the letter with her mother's beautiful handwriting. She cursed the handwriting under her breath while getting back down, her own writing looked like a party of drunken owls had flown into a broken ink-bottle and wobbled over some parchment.

"What are all of you going up there for?" Millicent called from a couch when Shira was halfway up the stairs. "We're having a small party here!"

"We'll be down soon!" Shira called back. Out of breath she closed the door behind her.

"Could you safe the door, Nasty?" Marcus asked where he sat and slowly and neatly folded up his Invisibility Cloak. He didn't exactly look joyful. Shira magically locked and muted the door before settling down beside Pansy and Theodore on Theodore's bed.

Everybody looked at Marcus as he refolded the cloak and seemed to be in deep thought. "You know, the professors here sure aren't sensitive to intruding magical devices. Not that this cloak is a device actually, but still... You'd think one of them would have noticed me. I was in the staffroom snooping around, and that odd pink-haired woman came in for something. I've heard that she is a very capable Auror, so I find it weird that she didn't notice me at all when she almost stepped on me. And I hung out at the High Table during the feast for a while too. I had to get close up to them to hear, because, Merlin, you students talk loudly. Moody didn't even see me with that eye of his. I know he can see through Invisibility Cloaks, because Crouch told me before his soul was sadly taken away. Crouch had seen _Potter_ wandering about with that Tournament Egg-"

"Marcus," Shira interrupted him. "Take a breath, you're kind of rambling here."

"Sorry." He put the cloak away. "I've just got to write something down before I explain myself."

Shira decided to read the letter while they waited. She pulled her legs up into lotus-position and opened the letter. The others got into a discussion about the next Quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

_My dear daughter_

_Things are just as normal here. Demon misses you a lot though, he just walks around my feet all day purring. I'm glad you're taking him with you after Christmas. You know I'm not comfortable around that cat._

_About your father and the business trip, it's nothing big. Just the usual. As far as I know, there is nothing serious going on. But I expect Delano to come home tomorrow, I'll know more then. You just focus on school and getting good grades, you know what will happen if your grades drop._

_I understand your concern about the marriage possibilities, but I _do hope you understand why_ your father and I are so anxious about this. And I apologise for the sake of your father and the way he pushes you. He is not that comfortable with being affectionate, and he is only this strict towards you because he loves you dearly. As do I, very much. Don't ever forget that, Shira._

_Your mother Ellyn_

Shira lowered her hands holding the letter and looked out into the dorm with furrowed brows. Her parents had never said that they loved her, nor had Shira ever said that to them. It had just been in the cards, they knew it, so they didn't have to say it. So this was weird. And with such emphasis on the words. It could just be one of their tricks to make her soften up and not be so stubborn about finding their Perfect Son-In-Law. But Shira got this scared and worried feeling.

"Something wrong?" Draco asked seeing the worried look on her face.

"No, just... I don't know." She motioned for the letter. "I've got this... this... She wrote something..."

"What did she write?" Marieileen asked.

Shira laughed embarrassed trying to say what her mother wrote. "She just, uh, told me something I'm not used to hearing from her, and it kind of... worries me. All things considered. I don't know." She looked at the letter again and read those last lines again silently muttering the words. They tasted bad.

"Ready?" Marcus suddenly asked and folded up a parchment he had been scribbling wildly on. Everyone focused their attention to him, he looked at the expecting looks and smiled stiffly and drew his breath. "Well, I'm here at Hogwarts because Our Lord and His Closest have decided that you 'children' should be let in on a bit of what's going on at the moment for safety reasons. As I've already said, I was at the Lind Manor yesterday. And I was there because we've gotten news from one our sources on the other side." Marcus paused for a second. "We know why Potter is not in school this year."

Eight gasps were let out and then a complete silence filled the room.

"Weasley, Granger and Longbottom have left the school now too," Shira said thoughtfully after a while.

"I know," Marcus said.

"I noticed yesterday morning, haven't seen their ugly faces since," she added as though she hadn't heard Marcus' reply.

"Why isn't Potter here then?" Pansy asked, and everyone could hear that she braced herself for the worst answer she could think of, whatever that might be.

"I'm not sure how I'm going to say this," Marcus said, "but The Dark Lord did something back before he... went away. He divided his soul in to seven pieces in order to become immortal. Dumbledore knew about this somehow, and last year he worked with Potter to find and destroy these pieces of Our Lord's soul. Potter continued the work after Dumbledore's death."

Marcus gave them a moment to absorb this information before he continued. "We have suspected for a while that something has been going on, and we just finally found out. But we also have found out how many pieces Potter has actually found and managed to destroy. Five. Five pieces. Only two left."

"You have got to be kidding," Theodore laughed nervously. "This can't be possible."

"Believe it." Marcus was not kidding. If he had not been serious before, he sure was now. It was written all over his face. "So... Why did you need to know? If you can realise how serious this situation between Potter and The Dark Lord really is, you will hopefully _lay low_. _Do not raise any suspicion or negative feelings._"

"Don't you think that's a bit late?" Draco said sourly.

Marcus gave him a dark look, no one was sure what he meant by that. "If you mean the fact that the entire Wizarding World knows that you were set to kill their most precious Headmaster and played a key role in the event that did kill him and are going free anyway," Draco looked very uncomfortable hearing this from Marcus, "than no, I don't think it matters. But what I _mean_ is that the Order and their side are on alert more than ever and the last thing we need are you doing foolish things or drawing suspicion."

"And telling us something so vital is actually going to keep us safe and out of trouble?" Marieileen said sceptically.

Marcus shrugged. "I was just given the job to tell you..."

"Well, thanks for the trust," Shira said glumly.

He suddenly broke in to chuckles and was getting not so funny glares. "Sorry," he composed himself. "It's just very difficult taking you lot seriously in those costumes."

"You're the odd one out, you know," Shira said. "_Not_ in a costume."

"Seriously," Blaise interrupted where he sat next to Marieileen leaning backwards with an arm behind her back. "What does this mean anyway? To our side and our future? What are we doing now?"

"It means that we are one step behind and Our Lord is not in the best of moods at the moment. We are doing as much as we can, trying to prevent the Potter and Order of getting to the rest of the pieces. That's our focus now. Sadly I don't have as much time working with it as I would have liked, I have my 'honourable' life-status to maintain."

"Surprise," Shira muttered.

"What?" Marcus asked.

"Surprise. Just one bloody surprise after the other." She automatically glanced at Draco, he raised his eyebrows.

"Nothing good ever comes from something Potter does," Draco said holding her gaze.

What a Halloween.


	10. Confessions

November was coming to an end. The halls of Hogwarts was freezing and walking near entrances or drafty windows would result in foggy breath and aggressive goose bumps. The dungeons were so cold that most students walked in large groups to keep the warmth. Snow had yet to come, but frost lay on the ground even after the sun had reached its highest point of the day.

Shira, Pansy and Marieileen were sitting in the Great Hall enjoying dinner before a weekend packed with homework. They had been loaded with homework in every class they were in and dreaded the busy weekend.

"You're so evil sometimes, Shira, pure evil," Marieileen said through her chews. "But I love you for it!"

Shira just chuckled proud. In potions after lunch, Professor Slughorn had told them to make a Confusing Concoction. Shira had planned on getting back at him for giving her detention two weeks ago, just because she accidentally made a potion explode. She suspected Ron Weasley had put something in her cauldron when she had turned away talking to Draco. The whole classroom was covered in orange dust for a week, and they still had to watch where they were going, because of broken cauldron and glass pieces. Shira managed to talk her way out of having to replace 13 cauldrons. And luckily the professors hadn't sent any letter to her parents, so she accepted the detention of cleaning every spot and corner of the classroom the Muggle way with relief.

Her chance for perfect payback at Slughorn had come this Friday. The ingredients in the Confusing Concoction are somewhat similar to the ingredients for an Amortentia. So Shira made the adjustments when Slughorn was busy praising stupid Granger. Luckily Shira had found a couple of hairs from Mrs. Norris on her robe which were dropped into the cauldron. It made a low hiss, and Marieileen, who sat next to her, coughed so Slughorn wouldn't notice. At the end of the class, bottles of Confusing Concoction were handed it and the Slytherins couldn't wait to see a lovesick Horace Slughorn chase Filch's poor cat all weekend.

"I just hope I managed to make it so much alike a Confusing Concoction that he won't suspect me," Shira laughed wickedly, while Marieileen looked at something behind Shira and Pansy. "Not that he could get angry at me, I _am_ a Slytherin..."

"It sure was brilliant what you did with the potion today, _Shira_," a deep voice drawled right behind her. It sent pleasant shivers down her spine. "You _are_ good..."

Shira turned around to see Draco pulling back with a sexy smirk. Her heart stopped beating the split second he held her green eyes locked with his icy blue ones. Then he walked away. Shira turned back with an irregular heartbeat, Marieileen and Pansy stared curiously at their friend's shivering reaction.

"Only you are able to pull off something like that. Make a potion with two effects, and still be alive after doing it," Pansy said proud. "I can picture you in a secret room in your manor, doing research and making cutting-edge potions, one more dangerous than the other."

Shira shrugged with a content smile. "Maybe I can make a potion to make the world fall at my feet... That would make things a lot easier."

"You do that," Marieileen said laughing. "Anyway," she said overly casual, sending a quick glance to Pansy and then taking a chance. "He fancies you, you know, Shira. Big time."

Shira shook her head back to reality and away from her future world domination plans. "What?"

"He fancies you."

"Who?"

"Draco."

Shira pursed her lips and raised one eyebrow in disbelief.

"Don't say you haven't noticed!" Pansy agreed with Marieileen, to both Shira and Marieileen's slight surprise, and relief. Pansy had a sort of history with Draco, being one of his previous flirts. One of the more serious ones too. She had been kind of obsessive about it, and always said she would not mind it at all if her parents arranged a marriage between the two of them, which she was positive they were going to do.

Shira refilled her goblet, not looking at her friends. "Guess I'm just another girl he hasn't shagged yet."

"Stop being stupid! He _really_ fancies you," Marieileen argued. "Not that I think you would mind being just a shag either. Not with him."

"True," she answered quietly with her eyes fixed on the goblet struggling to keep her cool.

"One long night of steaming hot, sweating, passionate, unconditional lovemaking with our young Mister Malfoy," Marieileen said with what was supposed to be a seductive voice.

Shira felt her face begin to burn, even Pansy got a slight tinge to her otherwise pale face. "Shut up!" Shira hissed before her blush came out of control. "Stupid."

"Now now, I believe all my suspicions were true," Marieileen said smugly.

"W-what?" Shira choked and Pansy chuckled again. "What suspicions?"

Marieileen looked like she knew everything in the world, every dirty little secret, and she was ready to rub it in everyone's faces. "You like Draco."

"Of course I like Draco. He's our friend. And he's grown from an arrogant brat, to an arrogant man." Shira somehow managed to keep her burning face away.

Her friend smiled like a kitten with a bowl of cream. "You fancy him, Shira. I've know about it for some time now. You think he's bloody hot, and you have very strong feelings for him."

Shira looked first at Marieileen, then at Pansy, and Marieileen again, trying to decide what to do. Denying would just make Marieileen bring it up again and again and again. Confessing would actually make her shut up, and what's the point in denying something so true? But she thought about Pansy, and looked at her again.

Pansy caught on, and shook her head gently as if she said she didn't want him anymore and gave the marching stick to Shira. With true interest and a smile she said: "Come on, tell us!"

With a sigh Shira surrendered. "Fine! If it will make you shut up," she grumbled barely audible.

Marieileen giggled. "I knew it, I knew it! How long have you felt this way about him?" she asked.

"How long have you know?" Shira would not for anything in the world say that she had felt like that more or less since fourth year. Even at the same time she had been in love with Theodore.

"It became clear to us early this term," Pansy said.

"Well, that's when it happened," Shira answered too quickly.

"Oh, Merlin," Marieileen gasped with a big smile. "You've liked him for a long time!"

The way she sometimes knew what Shira was thinking and feeling was annoying. But somehow Shira was kind of relieved that they knew about her feelings for Draco. And that she hadn't upset Pansy with it.

The plates and the rest of the dinner disappeared from the tables and the Great Hall emptied, except for a few blasted Puffies.

"So, you guys really think he fancies me, huh?" Shira said, glad no one was around them anymore.

Pansy nodded. "Yeah! It's pretty obvious actually. And he has for a while too. You should go for it."

"Ugh." Shira grimaced. "It would just be problems and fighting and it would just not work at all. If we even get as far as being together."

"Do you even know why the two of you bicker so much?" Marieileen asked. "You are so much alike. You are both stupidly stubborn and childish. Of course there would be problems, but I'm guessing you would make up faster than anyone could say 'stupid'."

Pansy laughed. "That is so right! You two would never have a dull moment, that's for sure!"

Shira shrugged, but knew they were both stubborn and childish. Then it seemed as Marieileen suddenly came to a realisation, as she gasped loudly. "H-hey! _He_ is the one you told us about? The one that kissed you in the hall?"

"Told you about? You dragged it out of my mind!"

"Like I said, when you're coming back from the _library_, looking so damn smug and happy, something's not as it's supposed to be. And we're supposed to be told what it is that is not right," she said matter-of-factly. "But back to the point, was it him?" She once again stared intently at her blushing friend.

Shira sighed again and nodded with a very small movement. "Yes, yes it was him," she whispered more to herself as she remembered that evening in the halls.

"Well, that's settled then." Marieileen grabbed her bag and stood up. "Shall we go attack the tower of homework?"

"_Nothing_ is settled," Shira said firmly as she and Pansy followed suite. "Nothing will happen, it is just a phase him and I are going through. And we will never speak of this conversation, ever. Get it?"

"Whatever you say," Pansy said smugly. "But sure, we'll never speak of this. At least not before you get your finger out of your butt and get moving with him." She gave Marieileen a high-five.

"Merlin..." Shira rolled her eyes.

---

That night, after hours of studying behind a fort of books, Shira slept deeply. But she had a horrible dream. She was standing in the big hall of her manor and it was silent. The silence usually has its own sound, but not even that could be heard. Shira turned around, and around, and around, not hearing her own footsteps. The hall was empty, every furniture and painting and flower was gone, only the welcoming cream white coloured walls left. Shira felt herself try to call out for her mother and father, but no sound passed her lips.

She headed for the door leading to a sitting room where her parents usually sat, but when she was just a few feet away from it, it disappeared. She looked around and all the doors disappeared when she looked at them.

Shira was getting scared now. Her heart pounded in her chest, but she only felt it, couldn't hear it, not even inside her head. She leapt for the staircase hoping she would get there before it too disappeared. But no, she was just about to put her foot on the first step when it vanished.

She choked in shock and desperately tried to find some way out. She was spinning around the room, or was it the room spinning around her? It seemed to get bigger for each round. She fell to her knees and let out a muted scream, and at that moment the surroundings changed to dark green.

Shira realised she had woken up and was sitting in her bed in her dorm in the Slytherin House in the dungeons of Hogwarts. Her mouth was still open in a scream and she quickly closed it afraid to actually do scream and wake everyone up.

With a deep breath she fell back onto the pillow. "Merlin," she whispered and laid an arm over her sweaty forehead. "What was that about?" With the same worried feeling she had when she had read the last letter from her mother, Shira couldn't help but think about her parents and what that last letter had said. _"He is only this strict towards you because he loves you dearly. As do I, very much. Don't ever forget that, Shira."_

One of the last things Marcus had said privately to Shira before he left was that she was not to worry about anything. Her father was a good Death Eater, and he was in charge of one of the missions to stop the Order from destroying the Dark Lord last pieces of soul. With him on top, there was no way the Order would succeed.

Yet Shira had this nightmare.

---

The next morning, Shira couldn't remember the dream at all, or that she had woken up after it. And even if she had remembered it, it would have been totally forgotten by the sight that met her and her friends in the Entrance Hall on their way to breakfast. It was snowing! Shira gave a whine and ran for a window. Pansy and Marieileen followed her, not as crazily enthusiastic.

"So beautiful," Shira whispered.

It had apparently snowed all night, because white silky material reached as far as you could see. It was a blinding sight.

"What are you looking at?" Draco asked. He and his boys had caught up with them.

"It's snowing," Shira said breathlessly with her nose almost pressed flat against the window. Draco caught himself smiling at the sight of her like that.

"Come on, Sweets," Marieileen said motherly. "You can play in the snow after breakfast."

Shira turned around and glared at her, but was already planning to go out and have some fun in the snow afterwards.

As they sat eating breakfast under the snowy ceiling, Marieileen kept giving Shira meaningful looks. And Shira skilfully ignored them, but knew why Marieileen sent them. Their conversation the day before. Shira couldn't believe Pansy and Marieileen actually believed that Draco had feelings for her. Sure there were some things about him that was different and odd, but there's no way it was true.

Right now, Draco was conveniently enough sitting next to Shira. She could feel the body heat pulsating from him and she had a bit of trouble eating her toast without dropping it from her quivering hands. Of course Marieileen noticed this, she gently poked Pansy in the side and both of them sniggered quietly.

Shira felt like covering herself in some cold and wet snow, so she decided she had had enough of breakfast and quickly stood up. "Who wants to go outside and play?"

"You serious?" Draco asked looking up at her.

"Yes," she answered without looking at him.

"I'm with you, Shira," Theodore said with a glint in his eyes that Shira found disturbing.

"I think we all are," Pansy said. "Let's go!"

All of them, Shira, Pansy, Marieileen, Blaise, Theodore and Draco, hurried back to the dormitories to put on some more suitable clothes. Vincent and Gregory didn't leave the breakfast table.

It was a mild winter's day, just below zero. It had stopped snowing for a while, but the sky told them it was only temporary. Anyway it was good enough for childish play in the snow. They went to a secluded area of the grounds, far away from all the other students that slowly found their way out of the castle and out to the silky wet substance. Of course the boys wanted to have a snowball fight. And the girls didn't want to be any worse, so it was girls against boys in a blazing fight. For a long time it looked like the girls would win, but when Blaise hit Pansy in the neck with a particularly hard ball and knocked her out of balance, the boys showered them in balls and won.

Shira laid down tired and hot, she decided to make snow angels. She laid on a slope, so she couldn't see the others, but heard that a snow fight had begun again.

"Having fun?" Theodore came and laid down next to her.

"A blast," Shira said blissfully.

They laid there for a couple of minutes in silence before Theodore broke it. "So, how you been lately?" he asked staring up at the clouded sky.

Shira turned to look at him. "Fine," she answered with a questioning look. "Why?"

"Nothing," he answered casually.

"Theodore," Shira said in a warning voice. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," he answered just as casual, but he turned to the side looking at Shira and hoisted himself up with the elbow.

"What?" she asked.

With a shrug he leaned over her and planted his lips on hers. She tried to push and tell him off, but he laid his weight on her and all she managed to do was create muffled sounds. Not aware of why, she began kissing him back. Shira only left her arms on her sides in the cold snow, Theodore was caught up in the moment and put one hand on her cheek and let the other rest on her waist. They didn't notice that the others had ended their fight.

"What's going on here?" a voice said curiously.

Theodore stood up hastily. Shira turned her head up and saw Draco and Pansy standing there taking in the scene. Fury was burning out of Draco's eyes.

"What's going on?" he asked again, this time his voice mirrored his eyes.

Neither Shira nor Theodore knew what to answer.

"Uh, where are Blaise and Marieileen?" Shira asked sitting up.

"They disappeared while I was busy drowning Draco in snow," Pansy answered smiling. "Probably off snogging."

"Don't change the subject!" Draco was very mad. "What were you two doing?" He sent a piercing glare at Theodore.

"We just had a little fun," Theodore answered smirking. "No wrong in having fun, is there?"

Shira groaned and Draco shifted his piercing gaze to her. "You're such a liar!"

"What?" she asked confused. "What the hell have I done _now_?"

Draco didn't answer, he just turned around and walked angrily back into the castle, the snow ploughing around his feet.

"You are such an idiot, Theodore!" Shira stood up and pushed Theodore's shoulder. He stumbled backwards and almost fell. "You just can't leave your hands to yourself once you know you have the slightest chance at anything!"

"Why is this my fault?" he yelled back. "You kissed me back!"

"Well, I shouldn't have. And keep your hands off anything that has to do with me in the future!"

Shira marched away and into the castle too. Pansy sent a glare in Theodore's direction, which he shrugged puzzled to, and she ran after Shira leaving Theodore cold, confused and alone.

"See what Marieileen and I are talking about?" she asked amused. "If that wasn't jealousy, I don't know what is."

Shira grunted.

"But did you have to go to such lengths?"

They had reached the stairs leading up to the castle entrance and Shira stopped. "I didn't do that to make Draco jealous! I didn't do that to make him anything! Theodore just came and kissed me, and unfortunately I kissed him back."

"Why would he do that?" Pansy asked and furrowed her brows.

"Because he probably thinks I still have feelings for him."

"Do you?"

"Merlin, no!" Shira tore open the doors and went inside.

"So why does he think you do?" Pansy caught up with her again in the stairs down to the dungeons.

Shira sighed deeply. "I suggested that we hook up if I can't find that boyfriend by graduation."

Pansy didn't say anything for a while. They reached the common room door and Shira spoke the password.

"You're stupid," Pansy finally said as the door shut behind them.

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Shira said sourly.

"You've finally realised how stupid you are?" Draco's voice drawled from behind a couch by the fire. The common room was empty except for him.

Shira sighed again. "Why the hell did you get so mad out there?" she asked him.

"Why did you kiss Theodore?"

"WHY DO YOU CARE?"

"I DON'T!" Draco stood up and jumped around the couch, the two of them looked furiously into each other's eyes.

"THEN STOP YELLING AT ME!"

"Merlin, here we go again," Pansy sighed.

"YOU STARTED IT!"

"I'm leaving." Pansy left the common room

"NO, I DIDN'T!"

"YES, YOU DID!"

"WOULD YOU JUST SHUT THE HELL UP, MALFOY?"

"Fine," he said and grabbed Shira's waist, quickly pulled her against him and kissed her. He held her tight and shoved his tongue inside her mouth. She eagerly responded and grabbed a hold of his hair, holding it tight making him moan in pleasurably pain against her lips.

That woke Shira up and she pulled away with eyes the size of bludgers. And as a natural reaction she slapped him. Hard.

"Why you little bitch!" he hissed. "You just can't make up your mind, can you?"

Draco advanced at her, she walked backwards until she hit another couch.

"I thought you had gotten what you wanted last time. But no, you have to go and put a spell on me again." He was talking with a low yet powerful voice. "Just can't get enough of me, huh? But I guess I was too much for your sorry little ass to handle this time."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Shira asked and tried to get her voice to sound just as powerful as his.

"I'm talking about these feelings you obviously have for me."

Shira gasped as he said this and was struck by panic. She ran for the door, almost knocking it down opening it, and sprinted away.

Draco continued speaking as though she was still there. "I don't like being around you anymore, Shira. I hate you. I hate the way you force me to feel, force me to loose control. I loath the spell you've woven around me. And I promise you that you will rue the day you met me." Draco sneered at the spot Shira had been moments earlier, not aware of the figure standing in the middle of the stairs leading to the boys' dormitory, watching him, listening to his ranting.

"Love."

Draco spun around and met Marieileen's gaze. "I beg your pardon?"

She stepped down. "You're in love, Draco."

* * *

A/N

Thanks to Ann-Marie for letting me use her words "blasted puffies" and for the help with getting me past a tiny writer's block!

Please review!


	11. Some Words Of Truth

Draco leaned against the door, slid down to the floor and breathed heavily to try and calm down. That Storme sure had some nerve telling Draco he was in love when he wasn't! And now Blaise probably knew. If he hadn't heard any of what had been said, Marieileen would definitely tell him. The two of them were clearly _together_ now.

After Marieileen had stepped down and repeated the false statement, Draco had yelled at her. And Blaise had come down hearing the noise, those two had probably been up there shagging. Draco had rushed up to the dorm in need to get away from Marieileen and her habit of being right.

Draco's first thought had been that this could _not_ get out. He sort of trusted Marieileen and Blaise with information like this, but they would probably tell Theodore and Pansy too. And Theodore could not be trusted that much.

"Ugh, Theodore," Draco muttered and remembered seeing Shira kissing him in the snow. That was the least pleasant sight he had ever seen. Shira lips against Nott's, his hand on her waist. It was wrong, just wrong. Draco wanted to Crucio Theodore senseless again, wanted to make the git feel just a bit of the pain Draco felt when seeing the two of them lying in the snow.

Wait, pain?

Draco absentmindedly reached for his arm where Shira had scratched him weeks ago. A warm feeling spread throughout his body.

Yes, he had felt pain too.

Draco scrambled to his feat and walked over to his bed kicking the foot of it. "Ouch!" As a reaction to pain, he kicked it again. "Fuck!" He grabbed his foot and hopped on one leg to sit down on the soft bed.

For several minutes he sat there with his elbows resting on his knees and running his hands through his blond hair. His thoughts were beginning to go in circles. Circling around Shira and the feelings she was making him feel.

Suddenly he jerked up. He had been thinking about Shira as if he _was_ in love with her!

---

No one had seen Shira since she stormed out. When she didn't show up for dinner, Marieileen and Pansy got worried. And when she wasn't even waiting for them in the common room or the dormitories after dinner, they decided to go look for her.

While they searched the castle, Pansy told Marieileen what had happened after Marieileen and Blaise had disappeared. And Marieileen told Pansy about what she had seen and heard and done in the common room.

Pansy shook her head. "I can't for the sake of anything understand why he is being so stubborn and not wanting to realise what he's feeling."

"Me neither," Marieileen agreed. "You think Shira could be outside?"

"That would be stupid of her. Let's go see."

But Shira was nowhere to found on the grounds either. So her two friends decided to go inside again and try get the boys to help them find Shira.

"Shira's gone," Marieileen said worriedly sitting down on the couch opposite of where Blaise and Theodore sat doing homework. "Could you help us find her?"

"No need, she's upstairs," Blaise answered putting his parchment and quill on the table.

"Really?"

"Yeah. She came in a few minutes ago with snow all over herself. We said hi, but she didn't even look our way."

The girls started for their dormitory, but Theodore called after them. "Could one of you _please_ explain to me what is going on?" he said with an angry emphasis on "please".

"At the moment, you should stay unexplained," Pansy answered aggressively and she and Marieileen disappeared up the stairs. When they entered the dorm they saw Shira sitting on her bed sniffing loudly and furiously scribbling something on a parchment.

"There you are," Pansy said and hopped down on her own bed. "Where've you been? What're you doing?"

Shira looked up at her friends. "Outside. Writing," she answered and forcefully dried her nose on her sleeve.

"Writing what?" Marieileen asked from her own bed.

"I'm writing a letter to my father," Shira said in-between more sniffs. "I'm giving him the glorious news that I'm letting him take over the part of my life he so desperately wants to control. If he has a wizard at hand, I'm ready to get married when told. Then I'm _safe_." Shira said that last word as if it was a curse and bent down over the parchment again, but flinched as both Pansy and Marieileen cried out:

"What?"

She put the parchment down with an exasperated sigh. "I'm not going to bother anymore. All that I've done this year in that area is gotten myself hurt and I've lost a friend, probably two."

"Getting hurt is –" Pansy started, but Shira rudely interrupted her.

"_Is a part of life._ Don't feed me that crap. It's so cliché. No one wants to get hurt, but it doesn't help at all with that bloody phrase."

"Sorry then," Pansy said quietly.

"Who do you think you have lost?" Marieileen wanted to know.

"Draco, and probably Theodore. Draco have been mad at me for quite some time now, no matter what you guys think or say. And after you left us in the common room, Pansy, I did something bad and by that I pushed him out of my life for good. And I yelled at Theodore for a reason he don't even know. So he hates me without even knowing why he does."

"By that bad thing I hope you mean hitting Draco, and not kissing him?" Marieileen asked.

"Hitting him, yeah. I can't believe how stupid I am..."

"Well, I don't think it matters. From what I saw –"

"Saw? What do you mean saw? Oh never mind, just shut up," Shira snapped and grabbed her letter again and continued writing. But Pansy leapt from her bed and snatched the parchment from Shira.

"_You are not writing home!_" She tore the parchment into pieces and lit it on fire with her wand. Within few seconds the pieces and ashes was gone.

Fuming, Shira pulled another piece of parchment from her bag. "No no NO!" Pansy said and took it all away from Shira, who looked just about ready to kill. "Marieileen, tell her."

"Tell her? It's nothing we haven't told her already," Marieileen shrugged. She didn't exactly want to tell Shira the hateful things Draco had said about her. Not that it was true... But still. Shira looked expectantly at Marieileen knowing she was holding something back. "Well, I was up in the boys' dormitory with Blaise, don't ask, and I heard some yelling so I walked down and stopped in the stairs when I heard that it was you and Draco. And I... Well, I saw the yelling and kissing and slapping and running. And Draco said something to you as if you were still there."

"Well?" Shira asked with a tiny pout when Marieileen stopped.

"He sort of said he hated you and hated the way you made him feel and loose control. Then he said something about a spell that I didn't understand." Marieileen looked questioningly at Shira.

Shira just shrugged and looked thoughtful.

Marieileen continued. "But I sure understood what he said when he said that you would rue the day you met him."

"Yeah well, I already do rue the day I met him," Shira said sadly.

"I let my presence be known and told him a few words of truth. In short: I told him I knew he was in love with you, he denied, he was acting childish and then Blaise came down looking for me and Draco stomped up the stairs." In thoughts she added: "Merlin, how childish he is. He actually stomped his feet like a five year old."

Pansy rolled her eyes, but Shira smiled fondly. But then Shira returned to reality. "How is all this going to convince me not to give up, eh? I haven't heard _one_ positive word!"

"Well," Marieileen said importantly. "He hates the way you make him feel and loose control. _So_, there's your evidence that he _does_ feel for you."

"So what? He hates it..." Shira said sadly. The anger running off her and let way for the sadness. She bit her lip to prevent herself from crying, but both of the girls instantly jumped over into Shira's bed when they noticed and pulled her into a hug from each side. And she cried.

"I don't... want... a-any of... this," she said in between the sobs. "It's-so-tiring. I'm so... sick of... it."

"_Exactly_ how long, Shira?" Marieileen asked quietly.

An uncontrollable fit of new sobs took over Shira, but she managed to answer. "Fourth year. But _nothing_... like thi-is... year."

"All the while..." Pansy said. "I and him, and you and Theodore."

"So... pathetic, I-I... know," Shira said, slowly calming down.

"It's not pathetic, Sweets," Marieileen said and playfully patted Shira's back. "Just a bit weird."

All three girls started laughing, and Shira felt like a load had been lifted from her shoulders after that breakdown.

"Please, don't let me break down like that over a boy again." Shira pleaded drying her eyes and nose with her sleeves. "I hate being this weak."

"We'll try," Pansy answered deviously. "All though it's fun to watch."

"Well, aren't you a nice little friend..." Shira teased.

---

Theodore had demanded an answer from Shira the second she had stepped out of the dorm. All she said to him was that he could forget their deal and stop bothering her. She knew she was being unfair to him, because it was mostly her own fault for even offering the deal to him. She knew he would take it too seriously, but she was so sick of everything. Theodore stopped talking to her, didn't ignore her, but stopped talking to her. Draco didn't talk to her. But then again, he was mentally absent in both classes and when everyone was together playing a game or talking or doing homework. Only time he seemed to focus was when he practised Quidditch. The season was over for the moment, but he had gone out to practise by himself both Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday even though it was still snowing and so cold he was at risk of freezing stuck in sitting position on his broomstick.

Slughorn had found out about her attempt to mess with the Confusing Concoction. First thing Monday morning he had taken her aside and told her off. He had been nice enough to not give her detention, because as he said: "It's soon Christmas, Miss Lind. Oh holy Christmas." But he had to give her a T and give her extra homework over the Christmas holiday.

Shira's mood was at bottom.

The nasty cold she got from sitting out in the snow last Saturday wasn't helping either. She just wanted Christmas to come so she could go home and get away from Hogwarts and Draco and Theodore and everything for a few days. And she could see Marcus again. A bit of quality time with him would be nice.

"Oh, Merlin," Shira said and closed her eyes with her arm over her face. Pansy and Daphne backed away. They had Herbology out in Greenhouse number five working with some plants that needed to be kept cold. Professor Sprout had removed a few of the glass-panes to let the winter wind in. Shira's cold got worse every day, but she had refused to go see Madam Pomfrey.

After a few deep and ragged breaths, Shira sneezed. Everyone in the Greenhouse jumped from the sound and Shira herself groaned and pressed her hands to her head, it felt like it had exploded.

"Keep those bacterias away from the plants, please, Miss Lind," professor Sprout called from behind a huge green bush in a dirty pot. "They're very sensitive."

"_Sorry_, professor," Shira said in a thick voice. When Sprout turned around, she bent over the plant she shared with Pansy and Daphne and breathed on it.

"Careful, we're sensitive too," Daphne laughed.

Ten more sneezes was let go before Herbology ended. All through the free period, lunch, Charms, another free period and dinner, Shira either sneezed or coughed every two minutes.

The girls were sitting in the common room playing Exploding Snaps with Blaise and Theodore that evening when Marieileen finally had enough. She was sitting next to Shira and was getting pretty tired of the sneezes and groans and the body heat. She almost knocked her friend over when she suddenly put her wrist on Shira's burning forehead.

"What the-?" Shira jumped back and made one of her cards explode.

"Your eyes are glazed and your face is as red as a cherry. And that heat radiating from you is unbearable. You're like a bloody forest on fire," Marieileen stated. "Please do something about it. If you don't go up to Madam Pomfrey on your own, I will drag your ass up there myself."

"You want me to sneeze on you?" Shira said threateningly back.

Pansy waved her hands warningly to Marieileen. "Don't agitate her, she's crazy enough to do it. She endangered our Herbology project."

At that moment Shira let out another loud sneeze on accident, receiving disgusted looks from Blaise and Theodore.

"Pansy's right," Shira said and bent her head backwards and sniffed loudly.

"Shira Lind!" Marieileen stood up and towered over Shira. "Go to the Hospital Wing! I don't want to see your face again until you are fine!"

Shira was about to protest, but as she opened her mouth, she sneezed again. "Fine," she surrendered.

"I'll follow you," Pansy said. "This game is getting boring anyway."

"Make sure Pomfrey chains her to the bed," Blaise said to Pansy.

"I will," Pansy said and smirked.

Up in the Hospital Wing they were met by a busy Madam Pomfrey. She emerged from behind a curtain set around a bed with her hands full of unknown vials and equipment when they entered.

"Miss Lind, Miss Parkinson. What can I do for you?" She hastily put the stuff she was holding on a tray and scurried over.

"I'm not feeling one hundred percent," Shira asked, her voice so thick Madam Pomfrey's eyes bulged.

"Oh my, you've got one nasty cold." Madam Pomfrey grabbed Shira's arm, pulled her over to the bed next to the high curtain and forced Shira to lie down. "It might be an early case of the flu. I got a couple of younger students who already caught it, so I'll have you checked in no time. Do you feel fine, Miss Parkinson?"

"Yes," Pansy was quick to answer. "I'm just making sure Shira made it here in one piece." Pansy couldn't hide the satisfaction of finally having Shira put in a bed in the Hospital Wing.

"Good for you to have such a good friend, Miss Lind." Madam Pomfrey smiled fondly to the girls.

"Yeah, I'm really lucky," Shira said ironically and sneezed again.

"Oh, that was a nasty one. Now let's see..." The old nurse reached for her wand in her apron pocket and checked Shira's condition. "Oh yes, you've got the flu. You're luckier than our friends over there though," she motioned for two occupied beds further down the wing, "you've just caught one of the milder viruses. I'll give you a Pepperup and a No-More-Flu-potion and you have to stay here for the night. Don't want your friends to get sick. Tomorrow you'll be free to attend classes after lunch."

Shira just nodded in defeat. Madam Pomfrey disappeared into her office to get the potions.

Pansy sat down in the chair next to the bed. "How's it going in Transfiguration?" she asked.

Shira had told Pansy and Marieileen about how little she looked forward to the only class she shared with Draco alone. Pansy and Marieileen hadn't had the chance to ask Shira about her Transfiguration-lesson with Draco a couple of days ago.

"I'm not sure," Shira answered. They could hear someone shuffling behind the curtain. "He's treating me like I'm a necessary evil. I suppose it's better than before, when he was really mad at me."

"No improvement what so ever?"

"A little bit maybe, but I'm happy I'm missing that class tomorrow," Shira hurried to answer as Madam Pomfrey came back with two vials.

"You take this one first," she said and handed over the potion Shira didn't recognize. Without hesitating, Shira gulped down the dirty blue liquid and almost threw it all up again, but slowly swallowed with difficulty. Madam Pomfrey silently handed over the Pepperup and Shira gulped it down too. She shivered from the taste and suddenly smoke began coming out of her ears. "Good, now just lie here and wait for the smoking to pass. You shouldn't stay too long, Miss Parkinson," Madam Pomfrey said and conjured an empty goblet and a decanter with water for Shira. "Miss Lind needs rest and you don't want yourself to get ill."

Madam Pomfrey went behind the curtain again and Shira and Pansy didn't get to start talking again before both of them turned in the direction of the curtains. Madam Pomfrey spoke to the person behind it. "Good, Mr. Malfoy. I suppose I can move the curtain now. There are a couple of girls from your house here too." And as the white curtains moved, Draco was being revealed. His left arm was bandaged and he had a bruise on the left side of his forehead.

He glanced over at the two girls and rolled his eyes before fixing his stare at the ceiling.

"What are you doing here, Draco?" Pansy asked when Madam Pomfrey walked over to the other two flu-patients.

"What does it look like?" he spat back and raised the bandaged arm flinching a little.

"What happened?" Shira asked hoping he wouldn't snap at her.

"Nothing!" he snapped.

"All right," Pansy said and stood up stretching casually. "I'll think I'll head back and read through my Divination homework before I go to bed."

Shira begged Pansy to stay with her eyes, but Pansy just smirked unaffected and waved and left.

Shira felt kind of stupid lying there with smoke coming out of her ears in the bed next to Draco. At least she wasn't sneezing anymore, but could feel the redness of her nose and her fever-flushed cheeks.

Suddenly Draco started laughing, but it sounded a bit forced. Madam Pomfrey gave him a stern look and retired to her office for the night, her critical patients were obviously asleep since it was getting pretty late.

"What?" Shira asked and held her hands over hear ears to try and keep the smoke back, but it only seeped out between her fingers and looked even more stupid.

"I fell of my broom," Draco said and stopped laughing just as suddenly as he started. "I fell of my bloody broom."

"Why?" Shira asked a bit amused dropping her hands.

"I don't bloody know why!"

"Calm down, I'm not attacking you," she said and a fierce blow of smoke came from her ears.

After a few minutes in awkward silence, Draco answered. "I was a bit excited I guess, trying to invent a new move and took a harsh turn and fell off. Good thing I wasn't that high from the ground."

"Why are you even out there every day?" Shira asked and turned towards Draco in her bed. "What's the point in this weather? And the season's over anyway."

"Got to make sure I keep being the best Seeker," he answered arrogantly, but Shira could tell it wasn't the whole truth. Everyone knew that now that Potter was gone, Draco _was_ the best Seeker Hogwarts had. No matter how much skill or practice the other players had or got, Draco was still the best at Seeking. So there had to be another reason.

"Right, of course. I'm so stupid," she said ironically. "You've never been this devoted to Quidditch before, risking your health like this. Besides, what do you need the extra practice for? You're an excellent Seeker."

Draco glared at her. "Are you trying to suck up to me or something? So, I'll kiss you again?"

Shira flushed and it made a huge cloud of smoke erupt from her ears. Both Draco and herself got lost in the smoke. They coughed and waved their arms, Draco waved with one arm, but that arm waved more feverishly.

"I'm taking that as a 'yes'," Draco coughed as the smoke began to clear up.

"I'm not trying to suck up to you," Shira answered trying to sound unaffected by his blunt question. "You don't need anymore ego-boosts either."

"So you want me to kiss you again then?"

"No," Shira said just a bit too harsh.

"Liar," Draco sniggered confidently. "You're not getting any no matter what."

"Who said I wanted anything from you?"

"Who need to say anything? It's so obvious." He smirked. "I mean, who wouldn't want this..." And he motioned for himself with the one good hand.

"Oh, would you just shut up," Shira muttered angrily.

"You're the one who started it."

"Started what?"

"Casting these spells, making me do stuff I don't want to do."

Shira groaned and raised herself on her elbows. "Are you still on about this spell rubbish?"

"Of course I am. Because I want you to stop casting them on me!" Draco was getting loud.

"I am not casting any spells on you! Why would I waste magic on _you_ anyway?"

"To make me feel the same way for you that you do for me!"

"Merlin!"

"So why are you casting these spells on me so that I feel this way?"

Shira could not believe her ears. Here was Draco lying in the hospital bed accidentally confessing his feelings for her. And once again Shira got proof that he hated feeling that way. Shira felt on the verge of tears and the smoke from her ears once again mirrored her feelings and shot out in a long blow.

"I swear to Merlin and_ The Dark Lord_," she lowered her voice saying that last name, "that I am not casting any spells on you!"

"Then why do I..." Draco shut his mouth quickly, he felt like he should shut up before he let slip something he shouldn't, even though he knew there was nothing that could slip. There came a sound from Madam Pomfrey's office and Shira laid back down again.

"Just stop bothering about it, Malfoy. Whatever it is that is wrong with you, it's probably nothing to care about." And she turned so she laid on her back and decided to sleep. "Good night."

"Bloody women," Draco muttered before saying good night too.

Shira wasn't tired at all. For several long minutes she lay awake listening to Draco breathing. Not long after he had said good night, had his breath began to calm down. His lungs slowly filling up and slowly emptying. It was rhythmical and peaceful, giving Shira a sense of comfort. The two of them had never slept in the same room before, and Shira knew this was the first and last time she could hear Draco sleep.

Suddenly a thought occurred to her. She rolled her head over gazing at him. His eyes were slightly open and he hadn't fallen asleep yet. "Draco, can I ask you something personal?" she asked thinking he'd probably be mad at her for ruining his half-sleep.

"Depends," he mumbled tiredly not moving.

"Did your parents marry out of love?"

"Why do you want to know?" Even though he spoke in a whisper, he managed to make it sound like he snapped.

She shrugged, even though he didn't see. "I was just wondering. I mean, I remember you once said their marriage was arranged, but I've always seen them as a very happy couple. To me it looks like they love each other."

Draco finally looked at her, puzzled. "I think they do love each other. They at least respect and care about each other. Mother was devastated when father was sent to Azkaban." He paused. "I don't know if they married out of love though. That's not exactly what I want to talk about with them."

Shira nodded agreeing. She turned on her side facing Draco and closed her eyes trying to finally sleep. When she had almost made it, Draco's deep voice sounded again. "I think it was arranged."

Shira opened her eyes and saw that Draco gazed over at her still. She smiled. "Good, so there's still hope for me." Then she closed her eyes again and fell asleep under the watch of Draco.

---

When Shira woke up the next morning, Draco was gone. She reckoned Madam Pomfrey had sent him off before breakfast.

"Ah, you're awake?" Madam Pomfrey asked and hurried over. Without even waiting for an answer, she started poking her wand at Shira. "Wonderful. No more smoke and no more sneezes?"

Shira shook her head.

"Good, you're free to go and if you hurry you'll make it to lunch. Professor McGonagall and professor Flitwick has been notified about you absence in your classes up until now."

"O-okay..." It was a bit too soon after waking up for Shira. But she managed to focus and stumbled out of bed and headed for her dorm so she could take a shower and change her clothes.

The halls were empty as Shira walked through them to the Slytherin common room which was empty too, and it was still empty when Shira came down after the shower and change of clothes. "How nice," she muttered. Only living person she had seen that morning was Madam Pomfrey, and it wasn't the most pleasant sight.

Shira reached the Entrance Hall when the doors burst open and all the students rushed for lunch. In the mass of cloaked figures, Shira managed to make out Marieileen, Blaise, Pansy and Draco coming from the Charms classroom.

"You're finally done with the gross behaviour?" Marieileen greeted her best friend.

"Good morning, I am fine, thank you for asking," Shira greeted back with a glare. "Did you leave for breakfast?" Shira asked Draco.

"Yes," he answered shortly.

"Okay," Shira raised her eyebrows and followed her friends in to the Great Hall.

"Did I miss anything in Transfiguration or Charms?" she asked halfway through lunch.

"Lots," Draco answered. "Too bad for you that you weren't there."

"We just repeated from last time in Charms," Blaise answered with a queer glance at Draco. "Wasn't anything new."

---

When the school day was over, Shira was mighty frustrated. Draco had acted like a complete ass. He had made comments every time she spoke, one ruder than the other. It was always something about how stupid and useless he thought she was. She first decided not to bother with it and tried laughing it off, which only resulted in him getting worse in his comments.

Marieileen and Pansy was so angry with Draco they wanted to strangle him. Blaise and Theodore were even giving Draco odd looks. During dinner, Millicent discreetly asked Marieileen what was going on with Shira and Draco. Marieileen didn't know how she should answer, so she had shrugged and said it was normal. Millicent didn't believe this, but didn't ask anymore.

Shira had eaten quickly and been the first to leave dinner. Since the common room was temporarily empty, she sat down by the fire and tried to rid herself of the anger and hurt searing through her. She was staring into the fire, wishing she was sitting inside it burning into to dust. It sure felt like she was a burnt pile of dust at the moment.

The stone door in the common room opened and in came the first group of students from dinner. The door kept bursting open, until her friends came. Seeing Draco was coming too, she angrily stood up and marched up to her dorm. She slammed the door shut and hoped everyone down in the common room could hear her.

And they had. Everyone had jumped and looked up the stairs. Marieileen had looked at Draco. She was so angry with him she would have strangled him if it wasn't for the crowd.

"_You!_" She pointed a finger at Draco and managed to sound and look so intimidating that he felt like he shrunk to the size of a beetle. "_Come with me!_" She was hissing like a rabid cat and motioned for him to go in front of her. He opened the common room door and stepped out. Marieileen glanced back to Pansy, Blaise and Theodore to made them stay inside. Pansy chuckled and knew that Draco was in for the worst rant of his life.

Draco had stopped a few metres away from the door and when Marieileen closed it behind her, she waved her hand at him making him walk backwards further down the hall. She held his eyes in hers and steered him far down a hall where she knew no one would come across them. When he bumped into the end wall, Marieileen took a deep breath and fired herself up. Her face was _white_ with anger and she poked him hard in the chest.

"You! Draco fucking Malfoy. What the hell is going on inside that hole you call head?"

He was about to answer, when she continued. "You are not going to say _anything_! Because I am going to tell you a few things. First of all, stop acting so damn childish. Get your damn face out of your ass and act your age! You _have got to_ learn that some things happen without you expecting it to happen, like falling in love with Shira."

Once again Draco opened his mouth, but Marieileen cut him off with a hard poke right between his ribs. "_DON'T _say _ANYTHING_ before I let you! Speaking of Shira, do you even know how much you're hurting her by being so damn immature and mean? I guess not, you bloody heartless git. I guess it's no secret for you, that she likes you. But you clearly don't have the capacity to understand what it means. That doesn't surprise me. What _does_ surprise me, is that you don't have a bloody clue how _you_ feel! I am not going to tell you what you feel or how you should feel, you don't seem to like that. But I know what I see."

She paused for a second.

"Now get that malfunctioning mind of yours working and acknowledge your feelings before you loose a great friend and possible _girlfriend_!"

Marieileen gave him one final extra hard poke in his ribs and left him standing in one of the most deserted halls of Hogwarts.

* * *

A/N

Ooooo, lots of anger and frustration... Anyway, I'm not so fond of that crying scene, but felt like it had to be there.... Hope you enjoyed the chapter anyway.

Please review!


	12. The Greatest Surprise

The snow kept falling down, in bigger and bigger flakes. Everywhere one looked, one saw this white blinding material. Christmas was closing in and the Christmas decorations increased day by day. Everyone was slowly getting into the right spirit. Some walked around humming carols, while those who preferred not to sing wore a cheesy grin.

The castle looked beautiful, and may have been a big contribution to the spirit everybody was in. The torches in the halls had been replaced by a large number of floating white candles, enchanted snow fell from the ceiling in the Great Hall _and_ the Entrance Hall and the halls in general. Mistletoe and fir hung on doors and walls, armours were humming carols. The paintings were even decorating their own painted surroundings and singing carols for those who bothered to listen.

Everything and everyone seemed to be in almost perfect bliss.

Shira didn't know anything about Marieileen snapping at poor Draco. Marieileen had made Pansy and Blaise, who were the only ones who understood anything, shut up about it. She argued with saying that Shira and Draco needed to sort things out themselves. And she hoped she had been able to push Draco in the right direction.

Exactly what was going on inside Draco's mind at the moment was out of anyone's perception. He didn't quite know himself. He just decided let go a little and see what happened. But he realised more and more that Marieileen was right. So Draco _changed_, a little bit each day. He understood that he was maybe acting a bit too immature. But he was refusing to admit to himself that he was feeling something new and big. He decided to try and make it up to Shira and maybe find out the true meaning behind these weird feelings.

Shira had once again noticed a big change in Draco's behaviour. She was getting more and more frustrated and exhausted by it. It all began in Potions Monday morning two days after Draco had been put in place by Marieileen. Slughorn had made his class do a simple potion for pure repetition. Draco had asked Shira if she had a spare rat spleen. He had asked her in a polite way and even smiled when she gave one to him. Shira had stared at his blonde back head for a few seconds in total surprise.

Through the entire week, his friendliness increased. In their Transfiguration class on Tuesday he was joking around, trying to be funny. It wasn't that successful, since Draco never had been the right person to crack jokes like a normal person. All the response he got from Shira was questioning looks and at one point she asked if he had hurt his head. So he tried a different approach.

On Wednesday he was waiting for Shira in the Entrance Hall when she got back from Care of Magical Creatures. Both of them had a free period, so he asked her if she wanted to come with him to the Hospital Wing to remove the bandages from his arm. He was acting all strange up there, like he was doing something very brave by taking them off. And back in the common room they expected to see Marieileen and Blaise, but those two had probably disappeared somewhere to snog. Shira and Draco tried to get some homework done, but Shira found it hard to focus. Draco was sneaking glances at her over his book. Shira felt his eyes upon her every time they left his book. But she forced herself to not look up, until she couldn't take it anymore. She jerked her head up and caught him staring. And didn't his cheeks flush just a little bit?

"What?" she asked.

"I was just thinking," he began, but changed his mind. "No, never mind."

"Tell me," Shira demanded to know.

"It was nothing," he answered and returned to his book.

Shira grabbed one of her lighter books and threw it at him. It hit him square in the forehead.

"What was that for?" he said heatedly and threw the book back and missing while rubbing his forehead with his other hand.

Shira easily caught the book before it hit her. "For not satisfying my curiosity."

"Oh, you want me to satisfy you?" he said boldly and raised his eyebrows. "We can arrange that."

"Oh, shut up." She didn't meet his eyes, but he saw her blush a bit.

On Thursday, Shira had two free periods. Draco managed to appear in both of them. The first one was a free for him too, and it went almost like the one the other day. Once again they were trying to do some homework, at least Shira did. Draco kept asking her all sorts of questions. "Are you looking forward to Christmas?" "Did you and Theodore ever shag?" "What are you doing this Christmas?" "What kind of boyfriend do your parents want you to have?" "What colour are your underwear?" Questions out of the blue mostly. After a half hour, Shira got tired and threw out answers without thinking much about what she answered.

The second free period was after Charms. Draco had interrogated Shira in the end of Charms, wanting to know what she planned on doing in her free period. She said she was going to be in the common room, but she and Pansy and Theodore decided to go to the library to work on something in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Draco left early from his Astronomy class and went to see if Shira was where she said she'd be. When she wasn't there, he tried the library and found all three of them.

Marieileen asked about Draco's behaviour on Friday when she and the rest of the seventh year girls were about to go to bed in their dorm.

She took Shira to the side. "Is something happening now?" she whispered.

"Happening what?" Shira asked confused.

"You and Draco, stupid. Isn't he flirting with you again?"

"I wouldn't exactly call that flirting," Shira snorted. "But I have no idea what's going on. That boy might be schizophrenic. Insane at least."

Shira sighed and shook her head and dived into her bed. Behind her back Marieileen nodded smiling to Pansy.

---

After an odd week, Shira was glad to be given the chance to forget everything for a few hours in Hogsmeade. The Christmas spirit was finally finding the time to sneak in on her and she expected this visit to Hogsmeade to pull her into complete Christmas mode.

"Third visit to Hogsmeade first half of the school year," Theodore said as they all walked from the station and into the village. "What's gotten in to that school?"

"Whatever it is, I'm happy about it, because I am starting to go crazy staying in that castle for so long," Shira said.

"Really?" Pansy teased. "I thought you loved it there."

Shira shot her a nasty glare that shut her up.

They passed a turn and all of Hogsmeade's Christmas glory stood before them. Snow in danger of falling off the roofs, magical red lights in the shop windows and several Christmas trees with magically blinking lights.

"Ain't it beautiful, Marieileen?" Blaise asked and put his arm around Marieileen. That was another thing that happened this week, the two of them had finally made it official. No more sneaking around snogging or shagging or whatever they liked doing.

"Sure is, Blaise," Marieileen answered and stood up to kiss her new boyfriend.

The others made disgusted faces and quickly walked away from the disturbing scene. Marieileen and Blaise quickly caught up with their friends and they all proceeded down the street window-shopping trying to decide what to get each other for Christmas.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Draco asked Shira when she had fallen behind to look through the window of a bookshop. Draco had noticed that she was behind and decided to join her. The others were so busy discussing the rumours about a new Firebolt coming after New Years that they didn't notice the two.

"I don't know," she answered silently. "What about you?"

"If the rumours about that new Firebolt is true..." He shrugged. "But it would be coming too late for Christmas anyway."

Shira nodded distractedly.

"Want to go inside?" Draco asked and motioned for the door. Shira nodded again. They took their time checking out all the shelves. More like Shira checked out the books in the shelves and Draco just followed her.

Suddenly Shira saw a book that looked interesting and grabbed it to see what it was about. And then she noticed Draco was just standing there.

"If you're bored, you can go after the others. I'll find you later."

"No, I'm fine," Draco answered and put his hands in his pockets. "What's it about?"

"Ugh, nothing fun." She hastily put the book back in the shelf. "Turned out it was written by a Muggle. Let's catch up with the others."

He nodded and they walked out into the snowy streets again and made their way through crowds of people.

"Are you and your mother coming to our Christmas Party this year?" Shira asked.

"Of course," Draco answered. "Wouldn't be Christmas without getting deadly drunk in your room after socialising in your lovely ball room."

Shira laughed. "So true! We've got to continue that tradition when school's over too."

"At least try. I might be someone great and famous, so you'll maybe have to work it out without me," Draco said arrogantly.

"Dream on, Draco," Shira said disbelievingly. "The only place you are and will remain great and famous is in your head."

He glared at her, but then he said: "And in your heart perhaps."

"Always," she said trying to sound ironic, but feared she failed miserably and tried to change the subject. She stopped and looked almost desperately around them. "Where did they go?"

Draco sniggered at her sudden change. "I don't know. I guess we've lost them. But we're fine on our own, aren't we?" He said and casually laid an arm over her shoulders.

"Guess so," Shira said a little uncertain. She both liked the idea of walking around in Hogsmeade alone with Draco, but she was also a bit taken aback by his sudden closeness. "Uhm, we shouldn't just go to The Three Broomsticks and see if they're waiting there? Maybe we've passed them."

"You don't want to hang out with only me?" Draco sighed with fake hurt. "We could shop for Christmas gifts that show how much we love our friends."

"Now you're just scaring me..." Shira said and they both laughed.

"So, just you and me then?" Draco asked, still having his arm over her shoulders.

Shira groaned. "Sure, you and me. But could you just..." She raised her shoulders signalling that she was a little uncomfortable by having his arm there.

"Okay." He let his arm fall at his side, looking slightly disappointed. "Why not?"

"Don't know, just... No."

"Where do you want to go?" Draco asked now clearly disappointed.

"I've been thinking about buying Christmas-inspired ink for the name tags on my presents."

"Scrivenshaft's it is then," he said and began walking in the direction of the quill and ink shop.

Scrivenshaft's was probably the shop with least customers that day. People just seemed to hurry inside to buy wrapping paper and then hurry out again to buy more presents or whatever they needed to do before Christmas. Shira and Draco wandered around for awhile, mindlessly looking at the hundreds of different quills and parchment qualities and ink-types.

Shira spotted her ink and picked it up and spun the bottle around in her hand examining it. "No, I've changed my mind. Too expensive." And she put it back down.

"I'll buy it for you," Draco offered.

"Draco, no," Shira protested. "I can afford it myself if that's what you're thinking about. Hell, I can afford to buy the entire stock of ink if I want to. It's just a waste when I can charm my old ink for free."

"I'm buying it for you." Draco was persistent and picked it up and held it out of Shira's reach. "Anything else you want or need?"

"No..." she sighed.

"Here you go." Draco handed her the tiny bag containing the ink when he had paid up and they had walked outside again.

"Why are you doing this, Draco?" Shira asked as she took the bag.

"Doing what?"

"Suggesting we ditch the others, holding around me like that earlier, and buying me this. Just being so, I don't know, _friendly_ I guess."

"Don't you like it?"

"Of course I like it. It's just a bit out of the ordinary coming from you."

"A guy can change, can't he?"

"Don't make me laugh, Draco. So why are you doing it all of a sudden?" Shira had stopped and stood in front of him, wanting an answer.

"Can't a guy be nice to his friend once in a while?"

"You're never this nice unless you want something in return."

"The answer will probably freak you out or something, so I'd rather not say."

"Exactly why you should tell me." Shira now stood with her hands on her hips, the bag with the ink dangling from her wrist and she looked Draco in the eyes.

Draco thought hard for a few moments. "I do this to people I like." And he began walking again, leaving Shira standing, it took a few seconds for the meaning of the words to sink in. A small smile finally found their way to her lips and she rushed after him.

"So, have you finished that Defence Against the Dark Arts-homework yet?"

---

All five seventh year girls had gone crazy with their galleons in Hogsmeade, so their dorm was packed with magical shopping-bags on Saturday night. Shira had managed to get something for everyone she wanted to buy to, and now she was stuffing the bags under her bed and securing them with charms.

She had had a blast with Draco in Hogsmeade. They had been in every shop, not saving any galleons. They even had time to sit down in The Three Broomstick and have a couple of Butterbeers. Shira suspected that Marieileen and Pansy worked hard to not be seen, because their friends was oddly missing. But when everyone was back by carriages at the end of the visit, they appeared and pretended like nothing weird had been going on.

Shira had been right. The moment the girls had closed the door to their dorm to drop off the bags and change for dinner, Marieileen and Pansy had cornered Shira under the confused stares of Daphne and Millicent. Shira was terrified because the two other girls were there and didn't answer any question.

But of course no one could misunderstand the small smile Shira got every now and then the rest of the day. Or the fact that Draco seemed to make a silent point about sitting next to her during dinner and in the common room later. The next few days were the same. Draco had turned on what he liked to call "The Famous Irresistible Malfoy Charm" and it became so clear to Shira, himself, and others, that he did like her as more than a friend. That made Shira more confident about the whole situation.

But something she didn't understand was what in the world had made him turn around so sudden? She didn't mind, not the least. But she wanted to know. Tuesday, four days before the holiday, Shira had to ask Pansy. They were in Herbology, the class after Transfiguration with Draco. She checked that Daphne or anyone else was busy not listening.

"Hey, Pansy?" she whispered behind the huge pot she was cleaning.

"What?" Pansy whispered back swapping her clean pot with a dirty one from the floor.

"You know this thing with Draco..."

"Yeah?" Her attention was sparked.

Shira waited a couple of seconds, thinking about how to ask. "Have you or Marieileen said anything to him? _Anything_?"

"What do you mean?" Pansy purposely avoided looking at Shira by scrubbing her pot hard.

"Do any of you two have anything to do with why he's all of a sudden so interested?"

"Well," Pansy hesitated. "Marieileen sort of talked to him that day when he was extremely mean to you. I don't know much about it, she just told me not to say anything."

Shira nodded that she understood and continued to clean her pot.

The bell rang and Shira and Pansy headed inside. "Has he said anything to you about Marieileen talking with him?" Pansy asked.

"No, but I couldn't help thinking that one of you had anything to with it."

Pansy stopped Shira outside the doors into the Entrance Hall, the rest of the class walked past them. "I know you're probably tired of getting asked this, but how is it going with the two of you?"

"I don't know," Shira sighed. "I know you were right all along. But I'm afraid he's just going to change again and be all mean."

"I don't think he will. By the look Marieileen sent me before she talked to him, she would probably strangle him if he did."

Shira chuckled. "That's my Marieileen."

When they reached the Slytherin table, Shira gave Marieileen a big hug. She didn't say anything when asked why, but just shrugged looking smug.

---

The next day went by in a sort of blur for Shira. In Care of Magical Creatures she was bored and freezing so much from standing out by the bloody forest she decided to fake her own death. The problem was that no one fell for it, or even noticed. So in her free period after, she sat almost inside the fire in the common room working on a Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. In the rest of the classes she was annoyingly unfocused because a certain blonde boy kept claiming her attention. And ironically it was Shira that almost got detention as Draco didn't even get a stern look from either Moody or Slughorn.

The common room was pretty hectic after dinner. And since Draco kept interrupting her, Shira strolled off to the library to finish her Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. It took her quite some time, and her friends sitting in the common room with their own work began to wonder what took her so long. Draco, who was getting pretty restless, volunteered to go check on her.

"Pince hasn't scared you off yet?" someone asked whispering behind Shira putting their hands on her shoulders. She was sitting with her head in her left hand and a quill in the other doing the finishing touches.

"You think she's scary, Draco?" she whispered playfully back.

Draco sat himself down in the chair beside her. "Horribly. I heard she kills students and hides them in the Restricted Section."

Shira laughed. "How's she killing them? Reading them to death?"

"It's possible, if the book's boring enough. So I've come to rescue you."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow disbelievingly.

He nodded. "And I expect to get a reward when I've brought you to safety."

"And how-?" Shira started, but at that moment Madam Pince stalked by glaring at the two for whispering too much. When she was gone, Shira continued. "How many galleons will that be?"

"Oh, I don't want any galleons."

Shira furrowed her brows trying to figure it out when he just stared at her. Then she blinked. "Seriously, you need to get laid." She shook her head in frustration.

"I am trying," Draco said and looked meaningfully at her.

Shira tried to look angry, but had to turn away from his gaze when a smile fought its way free. A smirk formed on Draco's lips and he laid a warm hand on her thigh.

"Anyway, everyone is wondering if you've been kidnapped by Filch or something since you were gone so long."

"How nice of you to worry about me, Malfoy," Shira said playfully.

"Hey, I said 'everyone is wondering' about you," Draco defended himself. "I never said _I_ wondered."

"Weren't you here to rescue me from the murderous Pince?"

"I still don't wonder."

"Your loss then." Shira took his hand and gently lifted it from her thigh, instantly missing the warmth it had given, and put it on his own thigh. She closed the book she had been double checking her essay with and put it back in its shelf and collected her essay and quill and her own books. "Let's go."

"You know what we should do some time?" Draco asked Shira when he walked behind her down the stairs to the dungeons.

"What?"

He walked up close behind her and whispered seductively in her ear. "We should shag in the Restricted Section."

Shira stopped on the bottom step and almost dropped her books. Draco bumped into her. She forced herself away from him just when he was about to put his arms around her and kiss the bare skin on her neck. He instantly straightened up and Shira was oblivious to his attempt.

"Excuse me?"

He advanced on her, but she backed away. "You don't think it was a good idea?"

"Uh..."

He advanced again, and she backed away until she hit a wall.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Draco walked slowly to her, holding his eyes locked with hers. Shira thought he looked rather frightening with those fierce eyes and a small smirk. He was right in front of her now, she could faintly feel his breath on her face.

"I'll tell you what," he begun after a staring into her eyes for what felt like an eternity. He took her books and homework and dropped it to the floor with a bang, the essay crumbled beneath the books and the ink bottle broke and run slowly in a black river down the hall.

Draco leaned in and kissed Shira gently. He lingered for a few seconds and broke free to look at her face. Shira's eyes were closed and it looked like she had tried to follow his lips. Draco smirked, and when she opened her eyes he leaned in again he crashed down on her lips violently. He took her hands, laced his fingers with hers and pulled her arms away from her body, horizontal against the wall. This way he got closer to her and he shoved his tongue inside her mouth without permission. But Shira responded and was just as violent, meeting his tongue with hers in a battle of wills. Their bodies ground towards each other and the back of Shira's hands became sore from being rubbed against the wall, but she didn't notice.

After a couple of minutes, Draco broke the intense make-out session and they heaved to catch their breath. Shira was week in the knees so she held on to Draco's hands for bare life and his head was spinning delightfully.

"Now, here's the thing," he breathed after forcing his dizzy head to focus. "You are now my girlfriend and I am your boyfriend. No objections."

"Okay," Shira said softly.

Draco was surprised. He didn't doubt that she would accept, but he expected some weak protests first.

"Good!" Then he picked up her things and ignoring the ink, leaving it for Filch to worry about. He kissed her quickly again and they walked the rest of the way to the common room. Shira spoke the password and Draco pulled her inside, sat himself and Shira down in the couch with their friends.

Shira was still a little flustered from the kissing and was very surprised. She wasn't sure if she had imagined it all or not. But when Draco laid his hand on her thigh again, her stomach did crazy flip-flops and she knew it was real. She smiled to him and he smiled back.

* * *

A/N

I know this chapter was kind of a rush of things, but I had to make it that way. I have the story-ending partially planned, so I had to rush things a bit now to make it all work.

Please review, love you if you do:)


	13. Home For Christmas, Oh Joy

The last day before the holidays went by in a blur. No one was paying much attention in class. Most were looking longingly out the windows at the snow falling outside. It hadn't snowed this much in years. Shira didn't think that much about the snow, the only thing she could think about was Draco and the fact that they were together. And he had the same problems. His mind was mostly preoccupied with thoughts that would make even Voldemort blush.

They had Transfiguration that morning, and Professor Tonks was actually letting her class chat away.

"You know, I'm really looking forward to your Christmas Party," Draco said.

"Why?" Shira wondered.

"Imagine what being drunk in your room can lead to."

"Right, and it's not like any of our friends will be there at the same time," she said sarcastically yet smiling.

"Wouldn't that be fun?"

Shira pushed Draco's shoulder and shook her head. "Many times I catch myself wondering about you..." She squinted her eyes, pretending to think deeply of something.

"And?" Draco impatiently wanted to know.

"I'm simply wondering how your brain works. It's remarkable how you manage to get the grades you get when all that we ever hear from you is something brainless like what you just said."

"Yet you agreed to be with me." He smirked.

"Yet I agreed to be with you," she sighed pretending to be frustrated. "But only because I hope to persuade you to donate your brain to the Ministry, for use in the study of how teen wizards manage to function in everyday life. It's a very difficult subject to study."

"You are so bloody clever," he mocked her.

"And I don't even try," she responded proudly.

Shira had really missed this friendly repartee with Draco. It was one of the things she really loved about their relationship, friends or more. But of course there was now several other things Shira enjoyed about their relationship. Lets just say that their free period together on Thursday was not spent on homework like it really should have been with all the last minute tasks they had been given. It was spent on the couch in the common room, and they were completely unaware of the world around them. They even missed lunch doing whatever they were doing. Blaise had been sent by Marieileen to go see if they planned on going to Charms. Hadn't it been for that, they probably would have missed dinner too and gone so far as to give some poor fellow Slytherins a blinding sight.

These new activities made them very behind with their homework, so Shira decided once again to spend the evening in the library. She got Pansy to join her so Draco couldn't barge in and distract her.

"Hey," Pansy whispered suddenly, barely audible. "Have you heard that Potter is spending the holidays with the Weasels?"

Shira looked up from the book. "What?" she whispered back.

"Scarhead's spending-"

"I heard. The point is?"

Pansy looked around them suspiciously. "I walked by a classroom on my way to Defence-class today. The two Weasels were talking inside it, alone. They said... that Potter was coming _back_ for Christmas. They were celebrating something. Then they said, and I quote: 'Everyone will be there, Ginny. The professors and the Order-people.'"

Pansy made an artistic break and the two girls stared at each other for a couple of minutes, their minds working hard.

"It's probably just some anniversary of some sort," Shira said at last. "A Potter-saving-the-day-anniversary."

"Why would they hide in a classroom and be all hush-hush about an anniversary?"

Shira waved her hands. "I don't even want to think about it. It's Christmas, it's snowing like never before and I've got myself a boyfriend. Those retards can do whatever they want, it _does not_ concern me at all." Then she took a deep calming breath. "Let's get back." They collected their stuff and left, feeling Madam Pince's eyes on them all the way out.

"Finally! What is that is so interesting about that library?" Draco greeted his girlfriend when they arrived in the common room.

"Hello to you too," Shira answered back and squeezed herself down beside him on the couch.

"Shouldn't you get around and pack for tomorrow, instead of spending quality time with this old virgin here in the dusty library?"

"Hey!" Pansy broke out, and they all chuckled.

"I'll just swing my wand before I go to bed," Shira sighed at patted his leg reassuringly.

Draco leaned down and whispered, all though they could all hear it. "Why not swing _my_ wand _in_ your bed?" He grinned suggestively and Blaise made a gagging sound.

"You're so funny, Draco. You play with your _wand_ alone, and I'll swish my wooden wand to pack my trunk _without_ you."

"Oh come on!" He pouted. "You're the one who said I needed it!"

"Oh my Merlin," Theodore exclaimed. "Too much information." They all laughed and spent the little rest of the evening talking.

---

Shira had swung her wand _alone_ to pack the trunk, but couldn't help to think about all the suggestions Draco had made, specially the one about the Restricted Section a few days ago. Those thoughts hadn't left her, and she was looking more forward to the holidays than before. There was a library at the Lind Manor that was rarely used. They had three, but one of them was sadly outdated and only the house-elves were there to dust every now and then. That could serve as a Restricted Section. Of course she had told Draco this, she had whispered it to him just before they stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. He responded my making an animalistic sound deep in his throat and planted a very wet kiss on her cheek smiling like a five-year-old boy getting a Firebolt for Christmas.

Shira, Draco, Marieileen, Pansy, Blaise and Theodore found themselves an empty compartment in the very back. Vincent and Gregory had been sent off to find somewhere else to sit. Shira suspected them to wander mindlessly around, not knowing what to do.

Pansy and Theodore felt a little like the fifth wheel, with the two couples, both in the first stages of a relationship and therefore very much in love. But except for the occasional groping, they didn't bother that much. They talked and joked, and at one point Shira tried to sing carols, but she was booed down by everyone else, her voice damaging their ear-drums. The hills and the trees began transforming into more civilized scenery and then they drove into London and Platform 9 ¾.

Shira held Draco back when the others had gone out. "You do know what it means to my mother and father that we're together?" she asked cautiously.

"Yeah," Draco shrugged.

"They'll probably start planning the wedding and everything the second I get home." Shira looked carefully at him trying to see any reaction.

"Okay." His face didn't waver.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Draco nodded, but now she could see his mind working.

"My mother and father will be planning _our_ wedding with or without our consent, not caring how early it is or even bothering to consider that we might hate each other in two years."

He swallowed hard, but kept his face. "Uh, okay?"

Shira smiled when she saw he was slightly anxious. "I don't want them to, not yet anyway. One day, in the far far future. But they are going to do it. Just don't care about it."

Draco nodded. "I'll be fine. They can't force us, right? We are of age."

"Right." Shira smiled, but she wasn't so sure that they couldn't be forced into it. "Now let's go."

Draco gave her a quick kiss and they went outside to meet their parents. Delano and Ellyn was standing over with the rest of Shira and Draco's friends and their parents.

"Mother, father," Shira said and nodded to each of them.

"Good to see you, Shira," Ellyn said and gave her daughter a gently squeeze over the shoulders.

"I have places to be, Shira, we should leave right away," Delano said and took her trunk, which only held some of her clothes.

Shira looked around for her friends. Theodore and Blaise and their families were gone already. Pansy was standing with her father, he was talking to someone Shira didn't know who was. Marieileen and her older brother by six years, Stephen Storme, waved to Shira before Apparating away. Draco was talking with his mother, Narcissa Malfoy. It was sad to see that Lucius wasn't there for his wife and son, specially now since it was Christmas. She really hoped he managed to get out of Azkaban before he went insane.

"No, father, I have something to tell you both first," Shira said still looking in her boyfriend's direction. When Draco heard her say that, he walked over and Mrs. Malfoy took a few steps closer. Ellyn and Delano looked puzzled at the couple, Draco with his arm securely around Shira's waist. "Draco and I are together."

Mrs. Malfoy made a sound that sounded too much like a squeal and hugged both Shira and her son. "That's wonderful!"

"Yes, wonderful," Ellyn said, but didn't sound as excited at Mrs. Malfoy. Delano looked shocked, and like he was trying to hide swallowing a lemon.

"Father?" Shira asked.

"Good for you both," he said briskly. "Shall we go home?"

"One second," Shira said as Draco pulled her with him away from their parents.

"It doesn't seem like they'll be planning any wedding," she whispered to him jokingly.

"Guess not," he answered.

"I'd rather have them marry us on the spot though, than imagining what's going on inside father's head right now. It was not exactly the reaction I expected."

"Don't worry, they can't just stop disliking me. _I am a Malfoy_. I'll have them around my finger again in no time."

Shira had to laugh. "No doubt about it."

"Now, how about a little demonstration for your adoring parents?" Draco raised his eyebrow suggestively and snaked his arms around her. She smirked at him, and she planted her lips on his. It was a short, yet very intense kiss. They broke apart after just a few seconds and stepped over to their respective parents.

"Let's go," Shira said and managed to wave to Mrs. Malfoy and Draco before she vanished from sight.

"Why are you disappointed?" Shira asked her parents the moment they popped into the Lind Manor hall.

"We are not disappointed," Ellyn answered too quickly.

"_He_ is not exactly what we had in mind," Delano said and vanished her trunk to her room.

Shira raised her eyebrows. "And what could possibly be wrong with him? Pure-blood, dark side, rich."

"Let's not discuss this now, honey." Delano pinched the bridge of his nose. "I am getting a headache. Go clean yourself, supper is in an hour. I'll be back by then." And he Disapparated

"Bloody -" Shira said before she Apparated to her room, "- git," she continued when she appeared by her bed. She fell down on her soft bed and closed her eyes with a long sigh. Seconds later there was light movement in the bed next to her. Shira turned her head to see what it was, and was met by a rough tongue licking her nose.

"Demon," she giggled. Her cat was lovingly licking her nose and its long fur tickled her. It was a Norwegian Forest Cat with long silky coat and bright emerald green eyes with a band of gold. "Have you missed me?"

Demon purred loudly in response and tripped excitedly around in a circle tickling Shira's face with his bushy tail. She picked him up and held him high above her face, before setting him on her stomach and letting him settle there.

---

It was three days before Shira brought up the subject of Draco again. In the meantime, every chance she got, she barricaded herself in her room, sealed it with every spell and charm she knew and Apparated to his house to spend time with him. It had been wonderful. Mrs. Malfoy was so happy for them, so they didn't have to stay hidden up in Draco's room. Not that they spent much time anywhere else.

They day before Christmas Eve, the Linds had always thrown a Christmas Party for their circle of "friends". It was glamorous, expensive and correct. Before Shira went to get herself ready, she found her father in the dining room.

"Father, can we talk now?" she asked cautiously from the door knowing that it probably wasn't the best time, but she had to talk to him before Draco and everyone else came.

"I suppose I don't have any choice," Delano sighed and laid down the guest list after counting the last chair.

Shira walked over to the table and took a deep breath, as if to summon some courage. "Why isn't he good enough?"

Delano sighed like all the burdens of the world were on his shoulders. "It's not that he isn't good enough, it's what he has done and the status it's given him."

"Do you mean what he did last year?"

Her father nodded.

"Wasn't that a good thing?"

He ran a hand through his black hair. "Our world knows about him now, knows what he has done, what he stands for."

"He's had that hanging over him since he was born. Hasn't Mr. Malfoy always been under suspicion? What changed last year?"

"Lucius, bless his soul, was a hard-working man. He was, as you said, under suspicion by a few people, and got himself caught in the end. That's when Draco should have stepped up and pulled his family back up again. But last year... He wasn't careful enough, and now the Ministry knows what he is, the Order knows what he truly is and the rest of the Magical World knows what he is."

"I can't-"

"He is in no shape to take care of you because of that! He can't give you a good foundation in our world! He can't work his way in to the Ministry the way Lucius did to keep up a good façade, while working for Our Lords cause!"

"Now why is that so bloody important?" Shira was getting really angry.

"Shira," Ellyn's voice came from the door, "go get ready."

Shira spun around with an angry and pleading look in her eyes. "Mother!"

"Go. Get. Ready." Her mother's voice was icy.

With a loud grunt, Shira stomped hard out of the dining hall. She stomped all the way up to her room, just to make a point.

Shira showered, dried and put her dark brown hair up in an easy do before putting on a dark green, almost black, simple dress all the while muttering words too bad to repeat. Demon hissed and hid under the bed when she stood in front of the mirror. Had her parents heard, they would have put her under the Cruciatus Curse, both at the same time. And they wouldn't have lifted it before New Years, year 2010.

When she was done, she Apparated down into the dining room to find it all done. Her parents came in when they heard her pop in.

"Have you calmed down?" Ellyn asked not commenting her outfit, like she always used to.

Shira raised her eyebrows in a rude way. "Calmed down? Calmed down? Why should I calm down when my own parents pushed me into finding them a son-in-law, and when I do, they don't approve of him! Don't tell me to calm down! And for all I know, you'll be announcing my engagement tonight, to Theodore or someone else insane like him!"

"Shira Lind, you do not shout to your mother, or me, like that," Delano said in a hushed voice that still ricocheted off the walls. "Draco is not safe for you."

Shira snapped, and for the first time in her life she spoke back to her father when she knew she really should shut up and go into hiding for a lifetime. "WHY NOT MARRY ME OFF TO HARRY SAINT BLOODY POTTER THEN? IS THAT SAFE ENOUGH FOR YOU?"

All at the same time both her parents gasped, Delano pulled his wand and echoes of two pops and gasps came from the hall. Draco hurried in hearing Shira yell that last sentence, behind him came Mrs. Malfoy. For five everlasting seconds the five of them stood there staring at each other. Shira acted first, she ran over to Draco, grabbed his arm and Apparated them to her room.

"I'm dead," she whispered to him, her eyes shining with horror at what she had just done.

"What's going on?" he asked and guided her to her bed and made her sit down beside him.

"I yelled at my father, I was rude and now I am dead."

"What were you arguing about?"

"You," Shira whispered.

"Did you find out why they reacted the way they did?"

"Yes, but let's not do that now." And she felt like doing something fun, so she pulled him down and kissed him. Quickly she straddled his hips and attacked his lips, her hands digging into his silky hair. Draco's hands began working their way down her waist, to her thighs, slowly inching up the dress. Shira let out a moan of pleasure as his fingers made contact with the soft skin on her thighs.

Her kisses became hungrier, and it was very clear what it was she wanted. Draco didn't object, quite the opposite really, because he easily found the zipper on her back and began sliding it down. Shira broke reluctantly from his lips and was about to pull down the top of the dress when Draco suddenly stopped her.

"Y-your dress," he breathed and took her wrists. "It'll get wrinkled. And the party... We have to get down there."

Shira sighed glumly. "You're right." She climbed off him and smoothed over the dress with her hands while Draco stood up from the bed.

"Here, let me help you," he said and turned her around to zip the dress back up. Then he sighed. "I can't believe I just did that."

"Don't worry," Shira assured him, "you won't be able to stop me next time."

Draco smirked the same old smirk and bent down to kiss her neck, feather light just to tease her. "Let's hurry down so we can get away then."

---

The ball room was buzzing with chattering and clinking of glasses. Soft music was playing in the background and people were mingling and sipping to high crystal glasses filled with Butterbeer or some fancy wine. No one was dancing yet, that was not until after they've eaten.

Shira was ecstatic about seeing Marcus again. She and Draco and Marieileen, Blaise, Pansy and Theodore, all a part of the pure-blood-circle that associated with each other, had surrounded Marcus as he was telling them about his success as captain for the Falmouth Falcons. He sure had managed to get the team back on track after the troubles with the previous captain.

"We've been invited to a tryout for England's team," Marcus beamed and shot his chest out proudly. "We're going to London the last week of January for a few days of tryouts and practises. I really hope at least one of us gets to join."

The boys nodded impressed.

"Don't you loose that player then?" Shira asked.

"Yeah," he sighed. "But we'll have plenty of time finding another. Whoever is picked from my team won't start playing for the national team before the summer. I already have some ideas for players I want on my team." He smiled secretively.

Before they could ask Marcus about his ideas, Delano spoke over the crowd announcing that dinner was served. Arm in arm Shira and Draco joined the queue into the beautifully arranged dining room. Shira noticed that she and Draco received a few glances, some seemed happily surprised, and she smirked inside. It felt good, especially since her parents got this closed look every time they saw the couple.

Back in the ball room after dinner, people were slowly beginning to dance. As fewer and fewer people were left standing talking, Shira sneaked off to the kitchen and ordered that seven of the largest bottles of Firewhiskey were to be sent up to her room. In the mean time, Draco Apparated to her room unnoticed. Quickly after Marieileen, Blaise, Pansy, Theodore and Marcus followed suite.

Soon the seven friends were sitting around Shira's room, each drinking from their own bottle of Firewhiskey. Marcus and Pansy was lying across the big bed, Shira and Draco on the floor by the foot of the bed. Blaise was sprawled across a chair with Marieileen at his feet. Theodore was on his back in the middle of the floor, Demon lying beside him purring under Theodore's stroking.

They were gossiping about everyone downstairs and talking about random things, getting tipsier by the minute. But Shira's bottle of Firewhiskey almost never left her lips. Marieileen was paying close attention to Shira for this, and furrowed her brows at her friend's desperate drinking. That wasn't like her.

"Hey, Marcus," Marieileen said to focus on something else. "You think I could try out for your team?"

Blaise coughed behind her, and received an elbow right in his shin.

"Sure, Marieileen," Marcus answered amusedly. "When Draco becomes modest."

"What?" Draco cried. "I'm modest. I'm the modest of the modest. Tell him, Shira."

Shira put the cork from her bottle to her ear. "Sorry, I can't hear you."

Draco pushed her with his elbow and she fell right down, giggling madly. Draco laughed and pulled her back up again.

"But, Marcus, seriously," Marieileen said again. "Do you think I could try out?"

Marcus sighed and thought for a few seconds. "If you convince me before the official tryouts first."

"What do you need that for?" she complained. "You've seen me fly many times. You know I'm damn good."

"I haven't seen you fly since I was in school, and the skills you had then could be the luck of a careless kid not afraid of anything."

"She _is_ good, Marcus," Pansy said.

"She still has to convince me before I let her try on equal level as the other's I'm inviting."

Marieileen muttered angrily, saying something about sexist men.

"How about playing a game?" Theodore suggested and stretched on the floor, making Demon jump away and hop up on the bed right between Marcus and Pansy instead.

"What game?" Blaise asked.

"I don't know," Theodore replied. "Something."

"Spin the bottle is always exciting," Draco said with a mischievous smile.

"Not with you, it isn't!" Pansy said.

"Which is exactly why we should play it," Blaise said smirking and put his hand upon Marieileen's head, ruffling her hair a little. Everyone nodded to that and sat up or found a more comfortable position, making sure they were all in a circle.

"Who's first?" Theodore asked.

"Here," Shira said handing him her empty Firewhiskey bottle. "Spin this."

"You've emptied it already?" Draco asked alarmed, looking at his own bottle, which wasn't even close to half empty.

"I was thirsty." She shrugged and fixed her eyes on the spinning bottle, feeling a little dizzy from it. Draco gave her a probing look, before realising that the bottle had stopped and pointed at him.

"So, what don't we know about you..." Theodore began thinking. "Which professor at school, male or female, would you do?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Draco complained as everybody chuckled.

"Come on, answer," Shira said, slurring a bit.

"Ugh," Draco said after thinking a bit. "Tonks, just because she isn't ancient. Next." He spun the bottle, it pointed at Blaise and he knew the question right away. "Have you and Marieileen shagged yet?"

"You complain about the question you got, and then you ask something like that!" Marieileen exclaimed.

"I answered, now he answers."

Blaise took his time thinking.

"Come on," Marcus said. "Don't you know what a shag is?"

Blaise glared at him, but then he nodded. Marieileen blushed furiously and shook her head with her hands over her face.

After a couple of hours, everyone knew some new things about each other, some things uninteresting and some things they'd rather not know. Pansy for instance, admitted that she could imagine that Harry Potter would be an animal in bed. Marcus had had a crush on Madam Hooch in his early years of Hogwarts because she was so good with a broom. Blaise _seriously_ considered turning gay after a Beauxbaton girl turned him down before the Yule Ball in his fourth year. Marieileen said she had cried hysterically the first time she heard Magic Works from the Weird Sisters, which was very awkward for her since she heard it for the first time at the Yule Ball. Theodore admitted that he likes to practise dancing alone in his room, not dancing like he needs to know for parties like this, but more like a performer. Draco said he saw Snape in his boxers during their stay at the old cottage last summer. And Shira was forced to tell that she thought Viktor Krum was hot.

Shira had called for a house-elf and made it bring her two more bottles of Firewhiskey not long after they began playing. So she was nice and drunk by now, and eventually fell asleep with her head in Draco's lap. They stopped playing when she fell asleep and just continued talking and joking as random as possible, accompanied by the soft snoring from Shira.

A couple of hours later, they decided that enough is enough and everybody except Draco took Portkeys home, as Apparating in the state they were in could result in messy matters. Draco stayed only to put Shira in her bed and he considered to go in with her, but decided against it. He left a note instead, telling her to get her "sexy drunken ass" over to his manor when she wakes up. Because he was curious as to why she had gotten in trouble with her parents and why that led her to drinking like she had never done before.

* * *

A/N

Spin the bottle. Cliché, I know. But it's a good game.

Please please review, love you to pieces if you do:D


	14. The Cover Up Story

Shira woke on Christmas Eve with a splitting headache. She groaned with pain and was about to put her hand to her head when she felt incredibly sick and clasped her hand over her mouth instead and tore out of the bed and in to the en-suite bathroom to hurl out the contents of her stomach in the toilet. It just kept coming and coming until it felt like her organs were trying to escape.

"Oh, Merlin," she sighed eventually, flushed away the horrible sight and sat down, leaning against the cold marble wall. She hadn't woken up properly yet, so her mind was going so slow it almost went backwards. At the moment she couldn't remember much from the previous day, but she knew there had been a Christmas Party, therefore she understood that she had gotten drunk with her friends after. But the only time she got sick after drinking was the first couple of times, she had never gotten sick since.

Slowly, she pulled herself up and bent over the sink to wash her mouth. She staggered back out and sat on the bed. Her head pounded from the effort and she just wanted to lie down and sleep for a lifetime. She was just about to do exactly that when she saw a note on the bedside table. She reached out for it and squinted her eyes trying to read the hurried writing.

_Sleep well? Never told me you snore. It's cute, somehow._

_Get your sexy drunken ass over to me when you wake up, and I'll tell you if I took advantage of you in your unconsciousness or not._

_Draco_

Shira had to smile as she remembered what almost happened before the party last night. And then she remembered what happened before that and her smile faded. This relationship with Draco meant a lot to her, and she really wanted her parents to be happy for her. Even though it was quite new and probably wouldn't last until the end of the school year because of Draco's unstable relationship habits. Shira was very aware of that, but didn't want to waste any of the time she had with him.

It was just so silly, what they were saying about Draco not being able to take care of her properly. She could understand them to some extent, but if she were to be with a boy that met their requests on safety, she would have to marry Harry Saint bloody Potter. But the thought of that made her nauseous again. She ran into the bathroom again and the little rest of contents painfully left her stomach.

After flushing away and downing an entire vial of anti-hangover-potion, taking a long warm shower and putting on some comfortable clothes, Shira found her way to the dining room. Her parents were sitting there eating lunch.

"Good morning, Shira," Ellyn said. "You look like a ghost."

"Morning," Shira mumbled quickly back. "Just a bit tired I guess," she lied.

Delano glanced at her, seeing right through her. After all, she and her friends had disappeared to get drunk every year since they understood what great fun Firewhiskey was.

Shira grabbed a plain slice of toast. "I'm going over to Draco's." And she Apparated with the toast before her parents could stop her.

Draco's room was empty, she reckoned he was eating lunch too, so she laid down on his bed to wait for him and eat her toast. She could feel the potion she had just taken working its magic and every horrible side effect from way too much Firewhiskey vanished each second.

Just ten minutes later Draco came through the door. "Oh, you're alive," he joked.

"Barely," she said and sat up. "When did you leave last night?"

"Around three or something." He pulled a chair over to the bed which he sat down in and gave her a quick kiss hello.

"And did you take advantage of me?"

Draco smirked. "Perhaps. That's for me to know and you to never find out."

"You said you would tell me when I came over," Shira pouted.

"I lied." He shrugged.

"Come on," Shira groaned and kicked his knee.

He suddenly launched himself up from the chair and came almost flying towards her. She scrambled backwards and Draco pushed her down into lying position. He had her struggling legs held down with his own and his hands were gripping at her wrists as he lowered his head and whispered fiercely. "I didn't take advantage of you, but I am about to now."

Shira was not frightened by his behaviour, on the contrary she stopped struggling under his sitting body. "Oh really, and what makes you think you'll manage now that I'm sober?"

"I'll just find and push all the right buttons and you'll be like warm fudge in my hands. No problems at all." He was smirking like the world was at his feet when he leaned down and started kissing her neck and certainly found a spot worth pushing, because Shira let out a moan and felt the excitement rise in her body. He kept kissing and licking around that spot as he let go of her wrists and drew his hands lightly over her arms, to her shoulders, his fingers lightly grazed the sides of her breasts and continued down her waist. They reached the bottom of her sweater and slipped under it. Shira gasped, his fingers were like fire against her skin. He was tickling her lightly, right over the hem of her trousers.

Shira groaned with frustration, wanting him to stop teasing her and get to the point.

Draco smirked and looked down at her. "Impatient?"

She simply glared at him and with shaky fingers she quickly reached for his black shirt and unbuttoned the few buttons he had bothered to button. She found his lips to wipe the currently annoying smirk off and he wriggled out of the shirt at the same time. Then all happened in a hurry, Shira sweater went flying towards the wall, one of them managed to magically lock the door just in case, lips were being violated and pants were sliding off.

---

Around dinner time, Shira and Draco emerged from Draco's room. She was invited to stay for dinner and happily accepted. At the moment she liked the Malfoy Manor much more than her own. It seemed warmer and more welcoming. After dinner they sat down in one of the cosy living rooms and told Mrs. Malfoy what Shira's parents had said about her and Draco being together, what the reason for their dislike was. Draco had asked about it, after their little adventure earlier. He wasn't very surprised, but agreed with Shira about them being unreasonable.

Mrs. Malfoy didn't say anything for a couple of minutes after the information was told. Finally she spoke: "I too understand them, this might not be the best of pairings at the moment. But they should be happy for you anyway, I mean, if you love each –"

She was interrupted by wild protests. "No, no, no," Shira said. "We don't love each other."

"At least not yet," Draco added.

"This might not even last very long."

"Right. It's only been a week."

"Might be over tomorrow."

"Or the next day."

"Or next week."

"Or next year."

"That _is_ next week, Draco."

"Right."

"Okay okay," Mrs. Malfoy laughed. "I understand. I still think your parents are being a little too unfair though, Shira. But I may feel that way because it's my son they are talking about and I am a bit biased about him," she smiled to Draco, who rolled his eyes awkwardly, "but I'm sure they'll come around. I think it's a shock for them. Draco will just have to show himself from his best side from now on."

"Don't I always?" he said cheekily.

"You really should try and pick up where your father left, Draco," Mrs. Malfoy said in a more serious note. "For the sake of your future. And Shira's, or whoever you choose to spend your life with. It won't be easy with the reputation you got in the future, if –" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "– Our Lord doesn't triumph."

"I know," Draco sighed. "It's just... so much work..."

Mrs. Malfoy looked horrified at her son. "Imagine if your father heard that!"

Draco waved his hand lightly. "How about we don't talk about that right now?"

"Fine," Mrs. Malfoy said and changed the subject. "So what have you two done today?"

"Talked," Shira answered so quick and definitive that Mrs. Malfoy gave her an odd look and decided not to ask more.

As much as Shira would have liked to stay with Draco and his mother for the rest of the day and spend Christmas Morning with them, Mrs. Malfoy convinced her that her parents would be hurt if she didn't spend it at home. And Shira remembered that Marcus with his parents and Ellyn's sister with husband and son would come over this evening, spend the night and join them in the morning. She wanted to spend as much time with Marcus as she could, so she said goodbye to Mrs. Malfoy, and Draco took her up to his room to say goodbye in his own way, then she Apparated home to the icy atmosphere there.

---

Having Marcus around for a few days was like bliss for Shira. Although all the frustration and stress at Hogwarts eased up when Draco and her got together, she really found herself finally relaxing completely in the presence of her second cousin. She decided to let the disagreement with her parents be while he was there. They really got time to catch up, and they spent the days talking, playing games and Quidditch, or, Marcus played Quidditch and Shira just flew around on her broom.

The last day Marcus was there, they were joined by Draco, Marieileen and Blaise out on the private Quidditch pitch. It was a spot in the garden, where Marcus had set up invisible magical walls to keep the cold and snow out.

Now Marieileen got the chance to show Marcus that she was worthy of trying out for his team. And she was certainly doing her best to impress him with her chaser skills. Even Draco commented to Shira that he thought she could be competition to Marcus. Eventually the so-called Quidditch match turned in to a challenge between Marieileen and Marcus. Shira, Draco and Blaise had given up and descended to the ground, inspecting the competition going on. Both were zooming around with a quaffle each and scoring goal after goal catching the quaffle again after it whooshed elegantly through the goal-posts.

"I'm feeling like the woman in the relationship now," Blaise commented as he laid on his back with his arms under his head following his girlfriend's every move.

"Just pull out the high heels then, Zabini," Draco joked. "Start practicing for the wedding."

Shira chuckled and Blaise threw them both an annoyed look. "Not that I don't want Marieileen to be happy or anything, but I kind of hope that whoever is picked from Marcus' team will be anything but a Chaser."

"But Blaise," Shira protested teasingly. "What will Marieileen do if she can't play Quidditch? Has she ever excelled in anything else?"

"She doesn't have to, does she? Once she's married, she can just go about doing cute little things and not worry about anything."

Shira sat up from her spot next to Draco, her teasing voice gone. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that, Blaise. Because I never expected something like that from you."

Draco opened his mouth to say something, but a fierce look from Shira shut him up. She laid down again, not quite understanding why she got so upset about Blaise's comment. Maybe because she knew how much Marieileen resented the rules of a "perfect arranged marriage" and the rules and duties that come from being a pure-blood trophy wife. Marieileen had all the respect in the world for her parents and their friends and her own friends' parents, but she didn't want her life to be reduced to being a boring house-wife. She wanted to experience the world, probably one of the reasons why she longed to be a Quidditch player. Shira respected her best friend greatly for that.

After another half hour of rough Chaser action, the two players came down to the ground, sweaty and panting.

"So, how did it go?" Draco asked.

"Well," Marcus sighed sitting down and wiping his forehead. "I can't do anything but promise her a fair chance in a possible tryout."

Marieileen squealed happily and jumped around hugging her broom before she laid down next to Blaise and breathed contentedly. "I'll finally be on a real team."

"Nothing is settled yet," Marcus said quickly. "If all goes wrong, no one from the original team will be picked. Besides, there are a lot of qualified Chasers out there. And I may not even loose a Chaser, could be a Seeker."

They sat outside talking until the darkness crept in around them. Marieileen and Blaise called it the night and left. Marcus went to his guest room to pack his bags and met Delano and Ellyn with Shira and Draco downstairs in the hall to say goodbye before taking Floo Powder back to his apartment in Falmouth.

An awkward silence followed after the fire calmed down. Draco suddenly broke the silence with an excellent suggestion. "How about we go read a book?"

"What?" Shira asked confused.

"I want to read that book you told me about, you know, about _restrictions_."

She realised at once what he meant, and before her parents could ask any questions she hastily took his hand and led him towards the stairs. "Let's go find that book then."

---

New Years Eve came quickly, without much improvement between Shira and her parents. She had asked if she could spend the evening with Draco, but her parents refused. There would be no point in Apparating to Draco, so she locked herself in her room trying to do some holiday homework, only coming out to eat.

She was particularly angry at her parents today. Their argument for making her stay home was that it wouldn't look good if she spent too much time at the Malfoy Manor. Shira argued back by saying that it wouldn't do any good because they were going back to Hogwarts soon and were free to do whatever they wanted. "You are staying home today, and the rest of the holiday," had Ellyn's last words been. Shira then stomped childishly up the stairs to the fourth floor.

Not only were they unfairly negative towards Draco by acting like this, but they were shutting Mrs. Malfoy out of their lives too. And that couldn't be any good in the long run. The Malfoys had always been a family they were close friends with, especially after their children began at Hogwarts. Not even with the risk of being marked as the Dark Lords followers after Mr. Malfoy's imprisonment had made the Linds back away from the friendship. And not even the troubles Draco had gotten himself into last spring. But as soon as their daughter had connected with the Malfoy's son, Delano and Ellyn changed.

And why couldn't they understand that by trying to keep them apart only made them want to be closer? Parents could be so incredibly stupid sometimes.

Shira was halfway through her badly written Potions essay when a sudden knock came to the door. "What?" she called out and made Demon stir in his sleep next to her books.

"Could you come in to the lounge for a moment?" Delano's voice came. "There is something your mother and I need to tell you."

There was something in his voice that kept Shira from rejecting. She turned around to check the clock on her bedside table. It was eight. What could possibly be so urgent this late on New Years Eve? She stood up and went to open the door. Her father was looking very tired and serious and stepped to the side to let her out. He walked behind her all the way, and it made her really nervous.

"I feel like I'm walking to the grave, like this," Shira said jokingly and looked back at him.

A slight smile twitched in the corner of his mouth. "It's nothing to worry about, it's just some important information you need before you go back to school." He opened the door to the lounge as they arrived and inside sat Ellyn waiting.

The two sat down and Delano didn't wait.

"I reckon you remember the information Marcus came with on Halloween," he began.

Shira nodded.

He sighed and weighed his next words. "I have to go away for a while, one month, maybe two. Your mother knows where I am going and what I will be doing. For your and _our_ people's safety I will not tell you, all though I believe you understand."

Shira nodded vaguely, not fully understanding, but accepting.

"I am going to Norway to visit our distant relatives there. One of them has apparently passed away and I need to be there to sort out the will he left." Delano said this with weight on every word. Shira understood that this was supposed to be a cover-up story for something. He continued: "Your mother will receive owls from Norway to let her know how things are going with our stubborn relatives, and you will probably receive some too. Respond normally, put my name on the envelope, but tell the owl you use to bring the letter to Tom Lake. _Don't ever let anyone know about that name_, and don't be afraid to say I am in Norway if people ask."

He paused to let it all sink in to his daughter.

"You understand the seriousness of this, Shira?" Ellyn asked at last.

"I think I do, yes," she answered. "But what is the real story?"

"Like I said, I will not tell you before everything is over," Delano said.

Shira looked at him, he looked exhausted and like he already had been out on a difficult two month mission. This clearly was a big thing for him.

"Can I tell my friends about it?"

"I expect that most of them already know something, nothing more than you do, but be _very careful_ if it ever comes up. The best would be if you didn't let it come up."

Shira nodded. "I understand. But one last thing, is it a dangerous mission? Seeing as it may last for over a month."

"It is always a risk of something going wrong, but everything is carefully planned and I can't see that anything _should_ go wrong. This is perhaps the most prepared and thought through mission our Lord has ever put in action."

"Now, honey," Ellyn said. "I think you should go back to your room and get changed. We have spoken with Narcissa and have agreed with her to let you be there for the rest of the evening. But you have to come back right after midnight."

"Wh-what?" Shira stuttered. She couldn't believe her own ears. "I can what?"

"Narcissa begged for you, saying you really wanted to be there tonight. And a couple of your friends will be there too. So we agreed, but you have to promise to be back right after midnight."

"Of course, thank you." Shira grinned widely and got up, when her mother spoke again.

"Don't think we have changed our mind about this completely, though. We still stand by our decision. But with the current circumstances we decided you should be allowed to see him tonight."

"Now go, before we change our minds about this," Delano said and waved her out of the room.

Full of thoughts Shira wandered back to her bedroom. She tried to make sense of the fleeting thoughts. A memory from Halloween came back to her, when Marcus said that her father was to lead some kind of mission to stop the Order from destroying the Dark Lord's last pieces of soul. Shira didn't quite understand this dividing of the soul and what that was all about, but she realised it was quite important.

She opened the door and began rummaging through her closet still thinking. A worried feeling came over her, the same feeling she had had a couple of times not so long ago.

With a pang she remembered when Pansy told about the conversation she overheard between Ginny and Ron Weasley. But what did that have to do with everything? She tossed the thought away and closed the closet door to put on what she had found. This wasn't the time for depressing thoughts, it was New Years Eve and she got to spend the last hours of the year with Draco and her friends. She didn't bother to dress up much, it was just a simple black skirt with a dark blue sweater. She threw on some light make up, said goodbye to her parents, and Disapparated

Sure enough, Mrs. Malfoy had invited Marieileen, Pansy, Blaise and Theodore over. They had been there for a while too. Draco explained to Shira that his mother was to have a few friends over, and she thought that Draco should have friends over too instead of joining his mother and be bored. And he said he overheard his mother talking to Delano and Ellyn through the Floo Network.

"It was quite a feisty conversation," Draco said. He and Shira sat away from the others for the moment. "I certainly see you get your stubbornness and glimpses of temper from your mother."

"Stubbornness?" Shira teased. "Glimpses of temper? Aren't you supposed to give me compliments? Saying that I've inherited my stunningly good looks from my mother? Or that she passed on her kind and warm and gentle nature to me?"

"Sure, because you are so obviously just those things. You just love all creatures, and fight for justice for the house-elves and the Muggles and all of those filthy creatures."

Shira hit him playfully and Draco pulled her up from the chair. "Now come on, you filthy Muggle-lover, let's get busy dancing like crazy."

All about Delano's mission and the disapproval of Draco was gone from Shira's mind. No one mentioned it either, the mission, and they didn't let slip anything that might indicate that they knew about it. But there was something in the air, a sort of nervous tension. It was very vague, and Shira only furrowed her brows once or twice registering that something was off. But just as she did, it was gone. Nothing of those unpleasant things mattered anyway. At least not at the moment. Pushing all bad thoughts to the back of her mind, Shira giggled with happiness and joy, thinking of nothing but the glorious present.

---

Time went by way too quickly for Shira's liking. From the moment she and Draco joined in on the dancing everything flew by. They had a simple meal right before midnight, and five minutes before the end of the year all of them stepped out on the closest balcony to enjoy the show Mrs. Malfoy and Draco had put together earlier that day.

Pansy and Theodore felt a bit like the third wheel with the two tipsy couples standing there waiting for the magical presentation in the dark of night. Both couples had their arms around the other for warmth and it looked awfully cosy.

Theodore wrapped his arms around himself where he sat in cold steel chair and chuckled. "Guess this is how it will be for us now, Pansy," he leaned back and put his feet up on the fence. "You and me, the odd people."

Pansy chuckled as she pulled her robe closer around her.

"Are you trying to make us feel sorry for you, Theodore?" Draco asked sneering.

"Maybe," Theodore grinned.

"It isn't working you know," Draco grinned back when suddenly something came whooshing up from the gardens below.

It was right at the stroke of midnight and a shower of white and blue sparks came shooting out from whatever it was that had shot up into the air. New sparks emitted from the already dancing ones before they died down and made room for another shower. This time it was in gold, green and red. The snow-covered trees and bushes were beautiful lit up with these sparks as they kept coming in more striking colours and increasing amount.

"Happy new years," they all said in unison, and kisses, hugs and handshakes were shared.

The magical show took a few more minutes, and when it ended everyone hurried back into the warmth.

"I have to go," Shira sighed when they were back in the sitting room. "I had to promise I'd be back right after midnight."

Draco sighed. "All right then," and he sighed again, sounding truly sad about it.

Shira said quick goodbyes and Disapparated. When she appeared in her room, she decided she should go and let her parents know she was home and in that way show her gratitude for letting her go to Draco.

She walked down to the second floor where her parent had a sort of living room they liked to be in. As she came closer she could hear loud voices. The door was slightly ajar and she tiptoed closer to listen to her parents' discussion.

"You know I have to do this, Ellyn!"

"But why do you have to _go_? Couldn't you have controlled the whole thing from home?" There was something in her mother's voice Shira didn't like. It gave her very unpleasant chills.

"He trusts me to do this in the best way possible, no one else could is good enough, and that means I'm going."

Ellyn sighed. "You preach to Shira about safety, and then you agree to do this. You're putting not only yourself in danger, you're putting us in danger too."

Delano's voice grew fiercer, Shira could picture him gritting his teeth and speaking through thin lips. "I have been on riskier and more difficult missions than this one. And you know _how bloody careful_ I've always been."

"Exactly, careful." Ellyn spoke just as fierce as Delano. "Which is why very few people know what side we are on. You told me yourself that you wanted more appreciation for your years of service, and you think this is it. But I think it is you playing daredevil."

Suddenly Shira heard a loud smack, which told her Delano had slapped his wife. With a face carved in stone, Shira Disapparated without caring that the pop would be heard. Delano and Ellyn froze at the sound and looked at each other. Ellyn sprinted out into the hall, but saw nothing.

The rest of the holiday, Shira avoided her parents. She went down to breakfast later than them, or she had food brought to her room by the filthy house-elves. During dinner, she didn't speak at all unless spoken to, and when she was, her reply was never more than a syllable.

She was happy to leave the day she caught up with her friends on the Hogwarts Express. There had just been too much so far this year. First all the confusion and pain with Draco, then all the happiness, and then disappointment, worry, more confusion and _this_. She hoped that by returning to Hogwarts and the daily routines there, things would finally calm down a bit. But who was she kidding, this was Hogwarts, was there ever something relatively calm and normal there?

* * *

A/N

A few comments first: 1. Okay, some might think they went fast forward in their relationship, but remember that they have known each other since they were eleven, circa. So the only change from then to now, is that after six and a half years they are finally boyfriend and girlfriend, not just friends. 2. Yes, Norway. Wonderful country, ain't it? ;) 3. I think this is the chapter I'm least satisfied with. Shame since it's the last one. But I just didn't know what else to do with it to get the purpose of it through.

Thanks to elle_silver at HPFF for the brilliant idea for the ending of this chapter! It may not have turned out so great, but I feel it closes the chapter and the story much much better than before, and it makes the story more ready for the sequel too. So thank you, elle_silver:D

So, please review, you know I love you if you do:D


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